Rasmus Hojlund scored the only goal as Napoli rounded out their Serie A campaign with a 1-0 win over 10-man Udinese, a result that secured a second-placed finish on Sunday. 

Antonio Conte's side knew a point on the final day would have been enough to fend off AC Milan and Roma, but they were made to work for their 23rd league win of 2025-26.

Napoli almost made the perfect start after just 65 seconds when Alisson Santos cut inside and forced Maduka Okoye into a smart stop low to his left, but the Brazilian saw his day ended early when he appeared to injure his hamstring when chasing a ball over the top. 

However, it was his replacement, Kevin De Bruyne, that helped create the opening goal in the 24th minute, with his incisive pass gathered by Hojlund, who took a couple of touches before firing into the bottom-left corner. 

The hosts were able to hold Udinese at arms' length from there, but their chances of pulling further clear improved when Christian Kabasele received his marching orders just after the hour after tussling, and then kicking out at Hojlund, with the red card shown after a VAR review. 

But their man advantage seemed to hinder them, with Juan Jesus needing to clear Idrissa Gueye's effort off the line before Scott McTominay fired over from close range after good work from Hojlund down the right-hand side. 

Matteo Politano and Miguel Gutierrez then saw their respective attempts comfortably gathered by Okoye as Napoli held on for all three points across the minutes that remained in what could have been Conte's final game in charge amid speculation over his future. 

Data Debrief: Second best for Napoli again

Despite falling short of retaining the Scudetto, Napoli can look back on a strong season in Serie A. Since 2015-16, Napoli have finished inside the top two for the sixth time, a record in that period along with Inter. 

They also extended their unbeaten run at home against Udinese. They have now avoided defeat in their last 15 top-flight matches at the Maradona against them (W13 D2), and it was down to Hojlund's decisive moment that got them over the line. 

Hojlund needed to wait 228 minutes to be involved in his first goal against Udinese in Serie A, with the Napoli number 19 also finishing with team-high totals for touches in the opposition box (eight) and shots on target (two), while only De Bruyne (four) created more chances than his two. 

Napoli were forced to showcase their defensive resilience late on, though. However, they finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 1.81 from their 14 attempts, six of which were on target, compared to Udinese's 0.48 from their 10 shots.