Chievo Verona and Udinese drew 1-1 at the Stadio Bentegodi on Sunday afternoon in Serie A, which keeps both sides in the bottom half of the standings after round 31.
A late first half Sergio Pellissier strike from a Riccardo Meggiorini cross gave the home side the lead at the break, but a second half own goal by Bostjan Cesar earned a point for Andrea Stramaccioni’s men.
The home side dominated the early possession but failed to create any notable clear cut chances in the opening exchanges, with a Ivan Radovanoic shot from outside the box on the quarter-hour the only real opportunity.
Moments later a free-kick on the edge of the Zebrette box, was fired over by Valter Birsa to Ervin Zukanovic, who was just outside the box but his half volley went sailing over the bar to the relief of Orestis Karnezis between the sticks.
Udinese were happy to sit back at this point and hit the Flying Donkeys on the counter attack and were giving away plenty of free-kicks with constant fouling around the middle of the park.
On the half-hour mark the home fans were screaming for a penalty as Danilo seemed to bring down Pellissier inside the box, but the referee waved play on to the annoyance of the home faithful.
But the deserved break through did come for Cheivo five minutes before half-time, as Meggiorini did well down the right and crossed the ball into the box, and his strike partner on the day, Pellissier, met the ball and side footed it beyond Karnezis into the net to give the home side the lead heading in at the break.
Just after the restart the home side had great chance to double the lead as Pellissier and Meggiorini combined again but it was it was Meggiorini denied this time by a fine save by Karnezis as he parried his left foot strike away from danger.
The game was getting very scrappy heading to the hour mark as both sides were committing needless fouls with saw the referee hand out six yellow cards.
Antonio Di Natale was introduced to proceedings soon after and the Zebrette legend nearly levelled the game in spectacular style as hit a half volley from the edge of the box over the head of Albano Bizzarri but it bounced back and down off the bar to safety.
The away side were finally showing some urgency now and did find the equalizer with 20 minutes remaining when a cross from the left was turned into his own net by the unfortunate Cesar which left Bizzarri with no chance.
No clear chances were created after and the tie filtered out as both sides seemed happy to take a point from the game.
