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Napoli remains third in the standings, level on 40 points with second-placed AC Milan, whichplays away to Como on Friday (AEDT) and three points off leader Inter Milan before it hosted Lecce. Parma is 14th on 22 points.

The home side came in on the back of two 2-2 draws, coming from behind in both games with Hellas Verona and Inter, and against Parma it was unable to make its dominance count in a disappointing display at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

"These are the type of games where you need to score as quickly as possible, open the match up, and then it becomes a completely different match," Napoli defender Amir Rrahmani said.

"We definitely need to be quicker, more decisive, bring more quality to our play going forward, not always two touches, sometimes just one."

The first chance fell to Scott McTominay, who scored both goals against Inter, with his half-volley from a Giovanni Di Lorenzo through ball into the box deflected into the side netting.

McTominay had the ball in the net minutes later but the goal was ruled out after a video assistant referee (VAR) check for an offside in the build-up and Napoli continued to probe for the opener.

Parma keeper Filippo Rinaldi, making his club debut, pulled off a point-blank save from Alessandro Buongiorno's header after Noa Lang floated the ball into the box after a short corner.

Rinaldi then parried away Rasmus Hojlund's shot on the turn, the keeper impressing in his first Serie A appearance as Parma continued to frustrate the hosts and the sides went in goalless at the break.

"There is nothing to thank, we make the choices we think are right," Parma manager Carlos Cuesta said when asked if he had thanked his keeper after the game.

"We thought Filippo was ready for a great performance, so it proved."

Hojlund had a great opportunity to open the scoring early in the second half when Rinaldi spilled the ball after colliding with his own defender, but the Napoli striker took too long to get a shot away, and Parma cleared the danger.

Napoli made a triple substitution before the hour mark, sending on Leonardo Spinazzola, Eljif Elmas and David Neres but there was little change as the hosts were reduced to half-chances.

Shots from McTominay and Stanislav Lobotka failed to trouble Rinaldi, who took a late booking for time-wasting as Parma was content to hang on and earn a point.