Maldini's Late Nip-In Sends Cagliari Top of Serie A

Cagliari moved top of Serie A, level on points with Roma and Inter, after Daniel Maldini punished a Udinese mix-up to settle a 1-0 win in Udine.

Udinese had the better of the chances for long spells. Keinan Davis then flashed an angled drive just wide before limping off with a muscular problem, replaced by Idrissa Gueye at half-time.

Gueye and Christian Kabasele both tested Elia Caprile after the break, the goalkeeper turning away a low volley from Kabasele with James Abankwah put off the rebound. None of it counted for anything on 54 minutes. Lennon Miller's back-pass caught Kabasele by surprise, the defender let it run, and Maldini nipped in ahead of him, went round Okoye and rolled the ball into an empty net.

It was Maldini's third goal in as many matches, and his second since joining Cagliari at the end of August, coming in a week in which he had been in the headlines for a car accident and its fallout rather than for football. Cagliari, missing Oumar Solet, Matteo Palma, Juan Arizala and Jakub Piotrowski, held on with a string of blocks — Alessandro Deiola and Ze Pedro both throwing themselves in front of shots from Giorgi Chakvetadze and Vakoun Bayo — and Caprile also did well to keep out a header that threatened to loop in off Harry Winks.

Cagliari have now won three of their four matches and sit on 12 points from five. Udinese, 13th with 4 points from four games, have lost three in a row, following defeats to Lazio and Inter, and Kosta Runjaic will have to find a way to stop his side's dominance of matches going unrewarded.