Napoli, Fiorentina share Serie A lead ahead of Inter Milan game

Milan: Napoli took a share of the Serie A lead with Fiorentina ahead of Inter Milan's home match against Frosinone later on Sunday.

Nikola Kalinic scored twice in five minutes to help Fiorentina come back from two goals down to draw 2-2 against Empoli in a Tuscan derby.

Earlier, Gonzalo Higuain was on target again as Napoli won 2-0 at Hellas Verona.

Napoli and Fiorentina have 28 points, one more than Inter and Roma, which was held to a 2-2 draw at Bologna on Saturday.

Sassuolo remained fifth, despite losing 2-1 at Genoa in a match that saw both sides reduced to 10 men at the end of the first half.

Elsewhere, Vincenzo Montella's first match as Sampdoria coach ended in defeat as his new team lost 1-0 at Udinese, while Lazio ended a run of three successive defeats by coming from behind to draw 1-1 against Palermo.

Carpi remained level with bottom club Verona after losing 2-1 at home to Chievo Verona. The two teams are seven points from safety.

Torino won 1-0 at Atalanta.

The French national anthem was played before each Serie A match and supporters displayed several banners in support of their neighbors little over a week after the deadly attacks in Paris that claimed 130 lives and left hundreds more injured.

There were also thousands of French flags waved by the fans in Udine. In Florence a huge banner of support was unfurled with the words "close to the French people."

Fiorentina was looking to move back top after Napoli's win earlier but it had a miserable first half.

Empoli took the lead in the 18th minute, although Marko Livaja was clearly offside when he latched onto Riccardo Saponara's through ball and fired inside the near post.

The visitors doubled their lead nine minutes later when a free kick wasn't cleared and Marcel Buchel smashed in the rebound from inside the box.

Fiorentina coach Paulo Sousa made a double change at the break and one of those players reduced the deficit 11 minutes into the second half when Kalinic headed in Marcos Alonso's cross.

The Croatia forward levelled shortly afterward when Khouma Babacar volleyed across Federico Bernardeschi's pass.

Kalinic could have had a hat trick but he hit the bar 12 minutes from time.

In the lunchtime kickoff, Verona tried to frustrate Napoli by defending in numbers.

Lorenzo Insigne broke the deadlock in the 67th after Marek Hamsik rolled the ball across the area for the Italy forward, who turned provider six minutes later with a cross for Higuain to tap in his 10th league goal of the season.