Papers split over Napoli after Inter's 3-2 comeback win

The story dominating the papers on Monday 7 September is how to frame Inter's 3-2 win over Napoli. Some look at Napoli and see a nightmare start to the season. Others look at Inter and see only the comeback.

La Gazzetta dello Sport tells the same match from the other side. Its headline, "Nerazzurri infiniti" ("Endless Nerazzurri"), celebrates the comeback by Cristian Chivu's side, now top of the table on 9 points. Where Il Mattino sees a Napoli crisis, the Gazzetta sees mostly an Inter night — two readings of the same 3-2 at San Siro, almost two different matches.

Corriere dello Sport instead tries to explain what went wrong for the Azzurri. Its headline, "Che rammarico, crolla quando Allegri alza il muro difensivo" ("What a shame, they collapse when Allegri raises the defensive wall"), points straight at the tactical handling of the second half, after a two-goal lead disappeared in half an hour.

On the referee, the press converge. On Sky Sport, Paolo Condò talks of "Rrahmani a terra" ("Rrahmani on the ground") and a "new method" behind Inter's goals, while Tuttosport goes further still.

Lautaro Martinez should have been sent off twice

Different bylines, same direction: referee Sozza's handling of the match is under fire from several sides.

Away from the match itself, Il Mattino runs a transfer story: the "possibility of a sale as early as January" for McTominay, the midfielder who is not renewing his contract. It ties into the Scot's forced absence — he is out following heart ablation surgery — and a midfield gap the summer transfer window never filled.

Our take

The pitch backs those asking for more attention to a detail Monday's press barely touches: Napoli led 2-0 and lost it in half an hour, and Allegri himself admitted doubts over how those substitutions were handled. Flagging Lautaro Martinez's unpunished elbow is fair enough, but treating it as the main story risks pulling the conversation away from what happened on the pitch.

The story that matters most — the possibility of a McTominay sale as early as January — ends up buried near the bottom of all this. Yet it says more than any Inter comeback about how fragile Napoli's midfield is this season.