Naples gears up again for huge title party at home

Napoli also expect as many as 10,000 fans to make the long trek to northeast Italy for a match when a point will be enough to claim their first league title since Maradona was in his pomp in 1990.

Hundreds of thousands of Napoli fans had flooded into the centre of the southern Italian port city expecting their team to beat local rival Salernitana last Sunday. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Napoli will open up the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium on Thursday night for a live screening of its away game with Udinese when it hopes to clinch the league title, local authorities said on Tuesday.

Napoli also expects as many as 10,000 fans to make the long trek to northeast Italy for a match when a point will be enough to claim its first league title since Maradona was in his pomp in 1990.

Extra police will be on duty in Udine for the game, with Napoli supporters taking up around half of the capacity of the Stadio Friuli.

The result may even be academic: Napoli could be crowned champion the previous night if Lazio fails to win its Wednesday home match with Sassuolo. Lazio, which is in second spot, trails Napoli by 18 points with six games to play.

Hundreds of thousands of Napoli fans had flooded into the centre of the southern Italian port city on Sunday expecting their team to beat local rival Salernitana and secure the Serie A championship for only the third time in their history.

But a late equaliser by the visitor put one of the largest street parties Italy has seen in years on hold for a few days.