Napoli were held to a second consecutive stalemate, as the remarkable Jurgen Ekkelenkamp strike cancelled out a towering Scott McTominay header for Udinese.
The Partenopei were three points clear at the top of the table after Inter surprisingly lost the rescheduled trip to Fiorentina, but missed Leonardo Spinazzola and Mathias Olivera with Alessandro Buongiorno on the bench two months after a back injury, so Pasquale Mazzocchi stepped in. The Friulani ended a five-match winless run by beating Venezia 3-2, but Isaak Touré, Keinan Davis and Maduka Okoye missed out, with Lautaro Giannetti and Kingsley Ehizibue not at 100 per cent.
See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.
It was a very aggressive start from Udinese, as in the third minute Alex Meret flew to punch a Florian Thauvin strike out from under the crossbar.
Napoli responded, a Scott McTominay header straight at Razvan Sava, who then acrobatically palmed away a Matteo Politano curler.
It was end to end, Lorenzo Lucca bending a long limb around Giovanni Di Lorenzo to volley just wide from six yards and Meret sticking out a boot to deny Ekkelenkamp from point-blank range on a Thauvin disguised pass.
Politano’s angled drive flashed across the face of goal and Jaka Bijol had two headers go close, but McTominay missed a sitter when prodding wide of the back post from a yard.
He made up for it moments later, as McTominay towered above Kristensen to nod in a Politano corner from five yards to give Napoli the lead.
It did not last long, as Udinese equalised a couple of minutes after that. Meret’s error and then Mazzocchi trying to avoid a throw-in allowed the Friulani to continue their attack, culminating in a remarkable, swerving Jurgen Ekkelenkamp right-foot scorcher from outside the box into the far bottom corner.
Sandi Lovric stung Meret’s gloves straight after the restart, while McTominay bent a finish just over from the edge of the area and Romelu Lukaku’s effort was deflected off target by Oumar Solet.
With time running out, Noah Okafor came on for his Napoli debut after the deadline day loan with option to buy move from Milan, but Udinese held on for the point.
Napoli 1-1 Udinese
McTominay 37 (N), Ekkelenkamp 40 (U)
Player statistic
| Scott McTominay (Assist: Matteo Politano) |
 |
37' | ||
| 40' | |
Jurgen Ekkelenkamp (Assist: Jesper Karlström) |
| 54' |  |
Lorenzo Lucca |
Match statistic
A little more composure in that final 3rd and the game was there for the taking for Udinese. Napoli have the advantage of one game a week but they’re easily the most bang average team to sit top of the league. More of a reflection on the rest than anything else.