Caglari drew 1-1 with Napoli on Saturday evening in Serie A at the Stadio Sant’Elia.
Nene opened the scoring for the Isolani in the 8th minute before Higuain equalized from the penalty spot in the 17th minute but deadlock reigned after an entertaining first half.
Cagliari started brightly, controlling possession and winning a series of corners.
Nene had a goal disallowed in the fourth minute after straying narrowly offside and the Brazilian received a yellow card for carrying on after Paolo Valeri’s whistle.
Nene then opened the scoring for Cagliari in the 8th minute after a mistake from Christian Maggio who handed possession to Davide Astori who calmly cut the ball back to Nene who beat Pepe Reina with a first time finish.
Goalscorer Nene’s eventful match ended after he was injured and was forced off to be replaced by Mauricio Pinilla on 13 minutes.
Napoli rallied and a half chance fell to Gonzalo Higuain but the Argentine could only mis-hit his shot and the ball rolled comfortably into the arms of Vlada Avramov.
The game became increasingly end to end with Radja Nainggolan finding space in the Partenopei’s box but the Belgian directed his half volley straight at Reina.
Napoli were awarded a penalty in the 17th minute when Astori unnecessarily tripped Goran Pandev as the Macedonian let the ball roll across his body.
Higuain calmly equalized from the spot after sending Avramov the wrong way.
Napoli started to camp out around Cagliari’s box in the but were unable to fashion a clear cut chance as Cagliari’s defence held firm, blocking shots from Blerim Dzemaili and Higuian.
Reina appeared to pull his hamstring at the end of the first half after collecting a through ball and Rafael replaced him in the net and an entertaining first half finished with the scores level.
The second half got off to a slow start, with both sides misplacing passes and conceding possession.
The first serious opportunity came as Pandev crossed across the face of goal but Lorenzo Inisgne failed to get on the end of it.
Daniele Dessena’s scuffed long range shot in the 60th minute was the closest either side came to scoring although Pandev briefly wriggled free down the other end minutes later before being closed down by Rossoblu defenders .
Valon Behrami earned a yellow card for a foul on Albin Ekdal in the 64th minute but Daniele Conti could only smash the ball into the building site behind Rafael’s goal from the resulting free kick.
With defences on top, Jose Callejon seemed to break the deadlock with a long range volley in the 72nd minute but the goal was controversially disallowed because the ball passed Pandev who was adjudged to be in an active offside position.
With 10 minutes left Cagliari had an opportunity as Pinilla headed just wide.
Napoli’s Dries Mertens almost won it at the end when he skimmed a low shot just past the far post after an error from Dessena and Napoli failed to close the gap on Roma.
