Goals from Antonio Floro Flores and Antonio Di Natale have given Udinese a 2-0 victory over nine-man Genoa.
Chances were rare in the opening exchanges but Di Natale came closest to opening the scoring with a long-range effort which was well saved by Sebastien Frey.
Genoa were handed a massive blow before the half-hour block when Juraj Kucka was shown his second yellow card of the match for a bad tackle on Diego Fabbrini.
Di Natale immediately punished the visitors as he converted the resulting free kick with a curling effort past Frey.
The away side's task was made even harder before half time as Rodrigo Palacio was given his marching orders for an off-the-ball incident with Diego Fabbrini.
Udinese predictably controlled the second period but failed to extend their lead on a number of occasions as Di Natale was particularly wasteful in front of goal.
Floro Flores put the game beyond Genoa with around twenty minutes left as he was able to stroke the ball in from close range after good work from Dusan Basta.
Genoa were unable to force an unlikely comeback in the final stages and Udinese comfortably completed the victory.
Callum Mulvihill
