Napoli missed out on the chance to make ground on the title-chasing pack in Serie A when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Bologna at their Stadio San Paolo home.

A defensive lapse allowed Robert Acquafresca to put the away team ahead against the run of play just before the quarter-hour mark.

Although Walter Mazzarri's men continued to have the better of proceedings against their struggling opponents, it took Edinson Cavani's penalty kick 19 minutes from time to finally pull them level.

And it was Bologna who came closest to finding a dramatic late winner, with Marco Di Vaio scuppering two opportunities to pull his side further away from the bottom three with an upset.

The draw is nonetheless a valuable one for Stefano Pioli's side, pulling them up one place to 16th ahead of Siena and four points clear of the relegation zone.

Well aware of the opportunity to create daylight between themselves and Roma for sixth place, the home side started brightly and Marek Hamsik had the game's first concrete opportunity in the 10th minute.

After Diego Perez had tripped Hugo Campagnaro out on the right flank, the half-cleared free-kick was put back into the danger zone where Hamsik was crucially denied by goalkeeper Jean-Francois Gillet at point-blank range.

However, after the Napoli pressure continued for several more minutes, the Rossoblu struck against the run of play in the 14th minute.

Nico Pulzetti's diagonal through pass should have been denied entry to the Napoli penalty area by Campagnaro, only for the defender to slip at the worst possible moment and allow Acquafresca to collect the loose ball and slot home the opener beyond Morgan De Sanctis.

Though at first Acquafresca looked offside, it was apparent that when the initial ball had been played by Pulzetti the Genoa loanee was level with play, and the goal stood.

After recovering from a further five minutes of scares from a buoyant away side, the Partenopei were able to resume their search for a goal of their own, and were left fuming two minutes shy of the half-hour mark when a penalty kick was not awarded for an alleged block by Archimede Morleo on Cavani.

A decent effort from Hamsik on 33 minutes brought Azzurri blood to the boil once more, with the home players adamant the shot had taken a deflection on its way behind, but the referee stood firm and signalled for the goal-kick.

Napoli should have found their way back into the game nine minutes after the break, when a Hamsik corner was headed at the near post by Cavani into the path of Goran Pandev, who with his back to goal two yards out turned and mis-kicked what would have surely been a goal, had he connected.

Pandev almost made amends in the 62nd minute when Cavani's shot pinballed off two defenders and landed at his feet, only for a recovering tackle to concede a corner before the Macedonian international could pull the trigger.

With 20 minutes to avoid an embarrassing home defeat, Napoli found hope when Cristian Maggio's lofted pass into the area struck the hand of Perez which led the official, after a consultation with his assistant, to point to the spot. Cavani made no mistake from 12 yards.

But after plenty of possession in search of a turnaround failed to yield another Napoli goal, the visitors broke away two minutes from time through substitute Gaston Ramirez, whose square pass put Di Vaio clean through until hesitation from the striker allowed the hosts to eliminate the threat.

Di Vaio struck a powerful effort straight at De Sanctis in the Napoli goal early in stoppage time, but the unthinkable victory was not on and the two sides fairly shared the Monday night spoils.

Liam Happe / Eurosport