Udinese slipped to fourth in Serie A after failing to find a way past Atalanta goalkeeper Andrea Consigli in a 0-0 draw.
Consigli produced a wonderful display to repel the home side's best efforts with Udinese dropping below Lazio, 2-1 derby winners against Roma, as a result.
Udinese talisman Antonio Di Natale will have the greatest sense of frustration with his personal duel with Consigli starting after 20 minutes with the keeper making a fine block.
By then, Udinese had already seen Di Natale shoot wide and Consigli keep out a Diego Fabbrini effort.
Di Natale headed a Fabbrini cross wide after 36 minutes and the pair combined with the same result two minutes later.
Consigli ended the first half with another fine save, this time keeping out a right-footed drive from 20 yards by Kwadwo Asamoah.
The one-way traffic continued after the break with Atalanta mustering little going forward.
Maurizio Domizzi shot wide straight after the restart and, shortly after, Michele Pazienza headed wide having been picked out by Di Natale six yards out.
Giovanni Pasquale shot wide after 50 minutes before Di Natale, the joint leading scorer in Serie A alongside AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic, had another effort superbly blocked by Consigli.
Consigli's next involvement was to deny Antonio Floro Flores.
It took Atalanta 81 minutes to create a chance of note and even then it did not test Udinese goalkeeper Samir Handanovic with Ezequiel Schelotto shooting high over the top after good approach work from Alessandro Carrozza.
Udinese had one final chance but Floro Flores was horribly off-target from outside the area.
