Napoli 3-2 Udinese: Serie A leaders resist fightback from spirited visitors to maintain unbeaten league start

Napoli survived a late scare as they continued their fantastic start to the season in Serie A with a 3-2 win over Udinese.

The table-toppers established a three-goal lead and looked to be cruising to victory before the visitors struck twice late on to set up a nervy finish.

Luciano Spalletti’s side held on to maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign and are six points clear at the top of the league ahead of title rivals Milan and Lazio facing Salernitana and Leece respectively on Sunday.

Victor Osimhen opened the scoring for the home side on 15 minutes, heading home from Elif Elmas’ left-wing cross for his ninth goal of the season.

Piotr Zielinski doubled their lead with a stunning right-footed effort from the edge of the penalty area on the half hour.

After the break, Elmas bamboozled the Udinese defence with some quick feet and a tidy finish to add an impressive the third just before the hour mark to all but end the game as a contest.

However, the visitors, themselves with aspirations of moving into the European places, made a fight of it and pulled a goal back on 78 minutes through Ilija Nestorovski.
The Macedonian forward finished off a fine move with a half-volley from Isaac Success’ clever chest flick.

Then, with eight minutes left on the clock, Lazar Samardzic took advantage of some sloppy defending to curl home a fine long-range effort to reduce the deficit further.

That proved to be the end of the scoring however as Napoli held out for all three points and Serie A supremacy until the new year.