Take two! Naples gears up again for huge title party

ROME : Napoli will open up the Diego Armando Maradona stadium on Thursday night for a live screening of their away game with Udinese when they hope to clinch the league title, local authorities said on Tuesday.

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.

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 champions the previous night if Lazio fail to win their Wednesday home match with Sassuolo. Lazio, who are in second spot, trail 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 rivals Salernitana and secure the Serie A championship for only the third time in their history.

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

(Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Hugh Lawson)