Napoli have been held to a second consecutive stalemate, because the exceptional Jurgen Ekkelenkamp strike cancelled out a towering Scott McTominay header for Udinese.
The Partenopei have been three factors clear on the high of the desk after Inter surprisingly misplaced the rescheduled journey to Fiorentina, however missed Leonardo Spinazzola and Mathias Olivera with Alessandro Buongiorno on the bench two months after a again harm, so Pasquale Mazzocchi stepped in. The Friulani ended a five-match winless run by beating Venezia 3-2, however Isaak Touré, Keinan Davis and Maduka Okoye missed out, with Lautaro Giannetti and Kingsley Ehizibue not at 100 per cent.
It was a really aggressive begin from Udinese, as within the third minute Alex Meret flew to punch a Florian Thauvin strike out from underneath the crossbar.
Napoli responded, a Scott McTominay header straight at Razvan Sava, who then acrobatically palmed away a Matteo Politano roller.
It was finish to finish, Lorenzo Lucca bending an extended limb round Giovanni Di Lorenzo to volley simply huge from six yards and Meret protruding a boot to disclaim Ekkelenkamp from point-blank vary on a Thauvin disguised cross.
Politano’s angled drive flashed throughout the face of purpose and Jaka Bijol had two headers go shut, however McTominay missed a sitter when prodding huge of the again publish from a yard.
He made up for it moments later,
It didn’t final lengthy, as Udinese equalised a few minutes after that. Meret’s error after which Mazzocchi attempting to keep away from a throw-in allowed the Friulani to proceed their assault, culminating in a exceptional, swerving Jurgen Ekkelenkamp into the far backside nook.
Sandi Lovric stung Meret’s gloves straight after the restart, whereas McTominay bent a end simply over from the sting of the realm and Romelu Lukaku’s effort was deflected off course by Oumar Solet.
With time operating out, Noah Okafor got here on for his Napoli debut after the deadline day mortgage with choice to purchase transfer from Milan, however
McTominay 37 (N), Ekkelenkamp 40 (U)