Napoli ready to end long wait for Italian title

A man walks past a graffiti depicting Argentine’s football legend Diego Maradona, with flags, banners and a papier mache model of Naples’s football players (up), in the colors of Napoli, decorating the Quartieri Case Nuove in central Naples on April 29, 2023, on the eve of the Italian Serie A football match between Napoli and Salernitana. – Naples, as the city braces up for its potential first Scudetto championship win in 33 years. An incredible 19 points clear at the top of Serie A, it’s surely only a matter of time until southern Italy’s biggest club win the Scudetto for the first time since 1990, when Diego Maradona was still strutting his stuff in sight of Mount Vesuvius. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

Napoli can finally end a 33-year wait for the Serie A title on Sunday when they take on Salernitana with potentially one more win enough to take them over the line.

Authorities in Naples are steeling themselves for a wave of partying should the current crop of stars emulate Diego Maradona and seal a third Scudetto for Napoli, with fans ready to unleash an explosion of joy after three decades of pent-up frustration.

In order to win the league a record-breaking six matches before the end of the season, Napoli have to hope closest challengers Lazio do not to win at Inter Milan in Sunday’s early kick-off.

Luciano Spalletti’s side will then seal the deal if they beat Salernitana in what will be a colourful stadium named after their Argentine icon.

Whether it comes on Sunday, midweek against Udinese or the following weekend against Fiorentina, Spalletti says Napoli need to emulate icon Diego Maradona, the talisman behind their previous two titles in 1987 and 1990, and give fans the chance to let loose in southern Italy’s biggest