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Dias Felipe earned Udinese a barely deserved point in Palermo, as the Sicilians repeatedly tested the goalkeeper.
Both sides are UEFA Cup contenders, but have been held back by their own frustrating inconsistency. Federico Balzaretti, Andrea Dossena and Tomas Zapotocny sat out bans, but Amauri returned from injury.
Palermo had the first chance after five minutes as their South Americans sensationally combined. Amauri held up the ball for Edison Cavani to chest and volley deflected just over the bar. From the resulting corner Amauri sprung the offside trap on Cristian Zaccardo's through ball and as the 'keeper rushed out he placed the angled drive to scrape a coat of paint off the far post of an empty net.
Antonio Di Natale's finish was too weak to trouble Alberto 'Jimmy' Fontana, but the Rosanero broke the deadlock on the half-hour. Amauri did brilliantly to flick the ball up between three defenders and the clearance fell to Fabio Simplicio for a volley that took Samir Handanovic by surprise.
Amauri went on another strong run and the pass to an unmarked Cavani was just intercepted. It should have been 2-0 when Mattia Cassani went on a great move down the right channel and cut back for Simplicio, but Isla's sliding goalline clearance prevented a goal.
Straight after the restart a corner was not cleared effectively and Handanovic got down to smother Leandro Rinaudo's effort. Gokhan Inler flashed a shot across the face of goal, but Fabio Quagliarella went off with a thigh problem.
Handanovic captured a looping Rinaudo header, then the goalkeeper parried a Cassani cross-shot from the right. However, Udinese had a rare chance when Di Natale's strike took a crucial deflection off Rinaudo to turn it out for a corner. From that set-piece Fontana fingertipped a Simone Pepe header over the bar.
This period of pressure finally paid off on 65 minutes. Another free kick was whipped in and Dias Felipe leaped over the crowd to nod in from six yards, leaving Fontana with no chance.
Palermo were shaky for a few minutes, but fought back and only a stunning one-handed save from Handanovic denied Giulio Migliaccio's glancing header.
The Udinese goalkeeper came to the rescue again, using a forearm to turn Andrea Barzagli's snapshot out at the near post. Felipe parried a Simplicio drive with his hand, but fortunately for him the whistle had already been blown for a Cristian Zaccardo foul.
Handanovic was kept busy in the final stages, getting down to parry a Bosko Jankovic piledriver and got a hand to Amauri's header from seven yards on a Jankovic free kick. The substitute changed the game and gave Palermo new energy and options going forward, but the Sicilians were unable to get the victory that would have put them within a point of Udinese.
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