Dusan Basta earned Udinese a point from a frantic 3-3 draw at Napoli that saw Rafael Benitez's men miss the chance to take a share of second place in the Serie A table.

A burst of three goals in seven first-half minutes - Goran Pandev netted twice before Federico Fernandez scored an own goal - gave fans at the Stadio San Paolo a taste of things to come.

Napoli, who would have joined Roma on 34 points with victory, recovered immediately from Bruno Fernandes' equaliser through Blerim Dzemaili, but Basta had the last laugh with a leveller 10 minutes from time.

The Azzurri remain in third place while Udinese move up to 12th having clinched their first point on the road since October.

In the day's other game, Mario Balotelli opened and closed the scoring in a 2-2 draw at Livorno that did nothing to shake Milan out of their mid-table malaise.

The Italy striker saw his clumsy first goal cancelled out by Luca Siligardi as Livorno snapped their three-game scoring drought, and the struggling Tuscans moved towards taking a valuable win when Paulinho completed the turnaround shortly before the hour mark.

Balotelli would, however, spare the Rossoneri from the embarrassment of suffering a sixth Serie A loss of the season with a powerful free-kick in the last 10 minutes.

The point - Livorno's first since November 3 - leaves Milan in eighth place ahead of a full weekend of league games that could see them dragged back into the bottom half of the table by other teams.