WE STILL AT THIRD PLACE(FOR NOW)!

Napoli had a valid goal disallowed in the first half and came the closest to breaking the deadlock in a tense encounter at the Stadio San Paolo, but they remain without a win in more than two months now.

Meanwhile, Milan can almost certainly now write off their hopes of lifting the Serie A title as they now trail Inter by 14 points with nine games of the season remaining.

Napoli had Daniele Mannini back in their team after his two-year suspension for reporting late for a doping test was overturned this week.

And he was the star of a very tight opening, creating the only chances for Napoli.

He had the first shot of the game in the 23rd minute, but missed the target from 20 yards.

Milan rarely threatened, although Nicolas Navarro had to be alert to push David Beckham's cross away from Filippo Inzaghi before tipping a curling effort from Clarence Seedorf over the crossbar on the half-hour mark.

Dida, who was back in the Milan goal and starting his first league game in 14 months, replied with a similar save to deny Ezequiel Lavezzi.

From the resulting corner, Zalayeta's goalbound header was touched in by Marek Hamsik, but the goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside.

Mannini continued to provide the most dangerous moments for the home team with his ball into the penalty area tempting an acrobatic volley out of Zalayeta, but he failed to direct the ball goalwards on the stretch in mid air.

Zalayeta then received another ball from Mannini, but was thwarted twice by Dida, who failed to keep hold of the Uruguayan's first effort, but recovered to block his follow-up.

Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti threw Ronaldinho and Kaka onto the field to try and add a new dimension to his attack, but the front three remained lifeless.

Pato found himself having to retreat into a position where he could never be a threat to the Napoli defence while Beckham was not seeing enough of the ball out wide either.

He was becoming increasingly frustrated and took it out on Napoli midfielder Manuele Blasi as the game risked boiling over in the final five minutes.

Beckham almost had the last laugh, though, as he made Navarro work for practically the first time in the game with a free-kick in stoppage time which seemed to be heading just inside his near post.

But Milan could not find the winner as they recovered only a single point on league leaders Inter and second-placed Juventus in the race for the Scudetto which now seems to be reduced to just two teams.

Napoli remain winless since January 11, but coach Roberto Donadoni will have seen more positives than negatives from this goalless draw.

Dissapointing for game for us and to make things worst,Genoa is just 4 point behind milan.I think all of you milanistas have heard about the cut in the next season change,if we can called it reconstruction.Milan have continue to keep the third place but for how long?