Udinese climbed above Napoli to briefly top Serie A as goals from Mehdi Benatia and Antonio Di Natale gave the Bianconeri a comfortable 2-0 home win over lowly Bologna.

Moroccan defender Benatia opened the scoring with a rare goal on 29 minutes, poking the ball home from a corner before Italian striker Di Natale (pictured) settled the contest with a 72nd-minute penalty.

Palermo and Cagliari stayed a point behind them with 2-0 victories while in the late game Juventus joined Udinese on 11 points - with the same goal difference - by beating Milan by the same scoreline (see separate report).

A Giulio Migliaccio header and an injury-time penalty from Uruguayan striker Abel Hernandez gave Palermo three points at home to Siena while two first-half strikes from Davide Biondini and Ribeiro helped Cagliari to a win at Lecce.

Sebastian Giovinco jumped to the top of the scoring charts with a first-half brace as Parma moved fifth following a 3-1 win over Genoa.

An 83rd-minute header from German forward Miroslav Klose, his third in five Serie A games, brought Lazio a barely deserved 2-1 win at Fiorentina.

Earlier on Sunday, promoted Novara and Catania played out a six-goal thriller with the exciting Alejandro Gomez equalising for the Sicilians in injury time after second half goals from two ex-Catania players Takayuki Morimoto and Jeda looked like giving the home side all three points.

In Saturday's games, Napoli defeated Inter Milan 3-0 at the San Siro to move second while Roma recorded their second straight victory to move to seventh position, beating Atalanta 3-1.

Reuters