Udinese are tumbling down the table after a shock home defeat to bottom club Reggina.

By a curious twist of fate, these two sides already faced off at the Friuli in the Coppa Italia on Wednesday. The ill-tempered tie ended 0-0 with Emanuele Belardi and Fabio Quagliarella sent off before Emil Hallfredsson missed a penalty and it took 20 spot-kicks to decide the shoot-out 8-7 in Udinese's favour.

Antonio Di Natale was still sidelined along with Ferdinando Tissone, while Andrea Costa sat out a ban for the visitors. Reggina had Serie A's worst away record with six straight defeats in which they had scored once, while Udinese were unbeaten on home turf. However, this was a special occasion, as Reggina celebrated their 300th Serie A match, excluding play-offs.

There was a minute's silence before kick-off for Regis Genaux, the former Udinese player who this week died of a heart attack aged 35.

It was surprisingly Reggina who had the best start, pushing forward with their new centre-forward-less system that dropped Bernardo Corradi to the bench. Franco Brienza's effort was deflected out for a corner, then his free kick skimmed the far post.

The Friulani began to wake up with Simone Pepe curling a free kick over, then they hit the back of the net five minutes before the break with Maurizio Domizzi, but it was disallowed as Pepe was in an offside position. Pepe's flick on the Quagliarella free kick had been parried into the path of Domizzi.

Pepe curled another free kick over the wall to bring a splendid save out of Campagnolo in the near top corner.

It was by no means undeserved when Reggina took the lead on the hour mark. Franco Brienza got a fantastic finish, his low left-foot volley flew into the bottom far corner of the net.

Antonio Floro Flores nodded a Gaetano D'Agostino free kick just wide and Quagliarella's backheel flick was smothered by the goalkeeper.

A couple of Barreto free kicks skimmed the woodwork, while Barilla' just failed to get on the end of Luca Vigiani's cross.

To make matters worse, Udinese Coach Pasquale Marino was sent off for dissent in stoppages.