Napoli dropped points in their bid to close the gap on second-placed Roma as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Cagliari in Serie A on Saturday night.
Nene opened the scoring for Cagliari at the Stadio San Elia in the ninth minute but the opening goal was cancelled out from the penalty spot by Gonzalo Higuain 10 minutes later. Napoli go in to the winter break two points behind Roma having played an extra game.
Udinese picked up a valuable 2-1 win at fellow struggler Livorno on Saturday in the final round of Serie A fixtures before the winter break.
Udinese coach Francesco Guidolin, who threatened to quit last week, handed a surprise start to Nico Lopez, who claimed the opener in the 11th minute. The Uruguay Under-20 star won the ball off Emerson and raced into the left of the area before unleashing an angled drive into the far bottom corner.
Luca Siligardi leveled for Livorno shortly after the half hour as he feinted past Maurizio Domizzi and drilled across into the bottom left corner.
Thomas Heurtaux scored the winner in the 65th minute. Livorno goalkeeper Francesco Bardi did brilliantly to keep out Danilo's volley from an Antonio Di Natale corner but Heurtaux rushed in to tap in the rebound.
It was the defender's fourth goal of the season and makes him joint top goalscorer at the club with star striker Di Natale.
Udinese also hit the woodwork in first-half stoppage time when Bardi fingertipped Allan's deflected cross onto the crossbar.
Livorno, which has lost five of its past six matches, remained a point off safety ahead of the rest of the weekend games.
The Associated Press was used in this report.
