Philip Billing goes from Bournemouth backup to Napoli hero in title clash | Nicky Bandini

Billy Gilmour or Philip Billing? That was the dilemma facing Antonio Conte for a season-defining fixture: his second-place Napoli taking on the Inter side who had just overtaken them with 12 rounds to go. Should he trust in a midfielder who had started only five Serie A games since arriving from Brighton last summer, or one who spent the first half of this season as a backup at Bournemouth?

“I’ve been thinking about it all week,” Conte said with a chuckle at his pre-game press conference, “and I still have 24 more hours to decide.”

Billing had made his Napoli debut one week before, playing the first hour of a 2-1 defeat by Como., having joined on loan in January. Subbed off while the score was still level, he was one of his team’s better performers. “I’m happy he had the chance,” Conte added. “When you miss the start of a season with a new team you can find yourself in difficulty with new methods and tactics … but after Como I have no reservations about using him.”

In the end, he still went with the familiar face against Inter: deploying Gilmour alongside Stanislav Lobotka and Scott McTominay in a midfield three. What does it say about Serie A that the choices for such a high-profile fixture should revolve around players who could not count on starting every game for mid-table teams in the Premier League?

It is a fair question to ask, and one that may feel even more relevant after the disastrous performance of Italian sides in the Champions League’s new playoff round. Juventus, Milan and Atalanta were all eliminated last month in ties for which they had been presumed favourites.

The answer has more layers than we can cover here. At a most basic level, this is simple economics: a reflection of the vast gulf in spending power. The combined value of the Premier League’s domestic and international TV rights deals (which will rise to €3.71bn (£3.06bn) from 2025-26) is almost three times that of their Serie A equivalents (€1.3bn).

It is a gap that only keeps widening, exacerbated by countless self-inflicted wounds. Conversations about the need to renovate or replace outdated, council-owned stadiums have dragged on for decades. Serie A’s lack of urgency in locking down international broadcast deals has likewise been exasperating. A renewal with CBS/Paramount+ for the US rights was not secured until mid-July, while OneFootball started streaming every game in England only after the season had already begun.

Billy Gilmour started the match ahead of Philip Billing. Photograph: Franco Romano/Shutterstock

There are plenty who would argue that the football itself has become less attractive, blaming a cultural obsession with tactics for producing low-tempo games. “Italian football goes slowly. Too slowly,” Fabio Capello said in October. “We need to do something more.”

All valid arguments, and none of them new. La Gazzetta dello Sport declared a “Year Zero” for Italian football as long ago as 2009, when no Serie A sides reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League. A year later Inter won the treble, but no Italian side has claimed European club football’s biggest prize since.

There is a tendency towards the apocalyptic in these discussions. We may remind ourselves that Atalanta did win the Europa League last season, beating Liverpool along the way and clobbering Bayer Leverkusen’s “Invincibles” in the final. Italian clubs performed well enough across the board to earn a fifth Champions League spot.

A little nuance goes a long way. That McTominay has become indispensable to a Napoli side fighting for the title likely does say something about the relative strengths of the Premier League and Serie A. But it also speaks to the work done by Conte, who has prized the player’s line-breaking talents and drilled tactics that give him the best chance to thrive.

Gilmour has had a more mixed experience, losing favour after an encouraging start. In part that reflects on the consistent excellence of Lobotka, who has once more locked down his spot as Napoli’s metronome. Still, the Scotsman’s scarce involvement had become a hot topic for local media in recent weeks. To re-enter the starting lineup for such a pivotal game at the Stadio Maradona showed he cannot have lost Conte’s faith altogether.

The game began cagily, reflecting recent crises of confidence for both teams. Napoli’s loss to Como came on the heels of three consecutive draws. Inter overtook them by beating Genoa last time out, but before that they had lost two out of three.

A magnificent free-kick from Federico Dimarco, whipped into the top-left corner, gave Inter the lead and snapped Napoli out of their trepidation. The Partenopei threatened to equalise quickly, Gilmour sending Romelu Lukaku through on goal with an angled ball over the Inter defence. The Belgian missed narrowly, hooking his first-time volley into the side netting, then had another point-blank effort blocked by Alessandro Bastoni.

Federico Dimarco gave Inter the lead, but they were second best for much of the game. Photograph: Felice De Martino/Shutterstock

Napoli only came on stronger after the interval, pressing Inter higher up the pitch. But the longer the game went, the more it felt as if this would not be their day. After Gilmour had a shot blocked from a Lukaku lay-off, McTominay blasted through a gap in the crowd, but Inter’s goalkeeper Josep Martínez was waiting behind the melee.

On, at last, went Billing, replacing Gilmour in the 79th minute. Moments later Inter withdrew Bastoni for Stefan De Vrij. Did those two substitutions change the course of the title race? In the 87th minute Lobotka accelerated between two opponents and ran at the Inter box. Lukaku came towards him, causing the entire defence to converge.

Billing eased into freshly vacated space by the penalty spot. Lobotka found him. After having an initial left-footed shot blocked by Martínez, Billing buried the rebound on his right before being buried under a pile of his teammates. In the stands of the Stadio Maradona, TV cameras picked out a fan who had come to the game with a homemade poster of the Danish midfielder above the words “If you want I’ll score too”.

Napoli nearly won the game in injury time, Martínez falling gratefully on a shot from Cyril Ngonge that deflected kindly for the goalkeeper as it flew through Denzel Dumfries’s legs. It ended 1-1, leaving both teams to wonder whether they ought to feel pleased with a point hard-earned or frustrated to have narrowly missed out on all three.

The draw, combined with Atalanta’s goalless stalemate against Venezia earlier on Saturday, ensured Inter would end the round in first place. This, though, was another underwhelming performance against a direct rival. The defending champions have won only one game all season against a current member of the top four, and that (against Atalanta) was all the way back in August.

There was more in the performance for Conte to feel good about. Although they started slow, Napoli had been relentless in pursuing their equaliser. To have it scored by a new arrival could boost the morale of a side whose creative potential has been heavily dented by injuries to André-Frank Zambo Anguissa and David Neres, as well as the January sale of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

For much of this season Conte has shied away from title talk, reminding reporters frequently that the team he inherited last summer had just finished 10th in Serie A. He continued to dance around explicit references to the Scudetto on Saturday, but his tone had unmistakably shifted. “We need to take responsibility,” he said. “If we want to, we can.”