sport news Naples is aflame with passion and fervour ahead of England's clash against Italy trends now
In one of the busy, bustling streets that run off the Piazza del Gesu in the old centre of Naples, two men carried an inflatable sky blue tube into position yesterday afternoon.
They stood either side of the narrow thoroughfare and hoisted the tube towards the first-floor balconies so they could tie it in place. 'Napoli' was written on it at regular intervals, with a club crest bearing the number three. There was a logo, too. 'Game Over,' it said.
England have not even arrived here yet ahead of tomorrow's opening European Championship qualifier with Italy but when they land today, they will find that the Neapolitans are in a raucous, triumphant mood already.
Their club lead Serie A by 19 points with 11 games to go and they are unabashed about starting the celebrations early for what would be only the third scudetto in their history and their first for 33 years.
It is tempting to wonder whether, in the circumstances, the Italy-England game will be an afterthought but there is little hope of that. Naples is aflame with passion and fervour, flags and banners hang from almost every building in the warren of streets of the Spanish Quarter and there is a frenetic edge to the mood that suggests the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona will be a cauldron of hostility when Gareth Southgate's side run out there.
Naples is full of passion and fervour ahead of England's visit to Italy in their Euro 2024 qualifier. Pictured: Clashes between Napoli and Frankfurt fans this month
England know they will face a bearpit of hostility when they face the Azzurri on Thursday
Maradona's restless, indefatigable, iconoclastic spirit still dominates this city almost as much as it did when he played here for seven years between 1984 and 1991 and when it fuses with Naples' seething resentment at the way it is looked down upon by much of Italy, it is a recipe for conflict and confrontation.
The ubiquity of his image here, and his history with England, is something else that lends the occasion an ominous feel.
It is hard to think of a city anywhere in the world that reveres a sports star, past or present, as much as Naples reveres Maradona. There is a case for Sachin Tendulkar in Mumbai, perhaps, but it does not compare to this.
Maradona's face is everywhere. There are shrines to him in the backstreets, giant murals of him, paintings of him dressed as the pope, pictures of him depicted as a saint.
At Bar Nilo, in the San Lorenzo quarter of the city, a lock of Maradona's hair spins round and round in a small plastic case alongside quasi-religious images of him with a halo and holding an archbishop's staff. The walls are decorated with Maradona memorabilia.
Naples are still mourning the loss of Diego Maradona - and his history with England lends an ominous feel to this game
A front page of Corriere dello Sport shows Lionel Messi kissing the World Cup in Qatar last December under the headline 'Maradoha'.
Maradona and Naples were the perfect fit, outsiders and haters of the establishment. Maradona helped the city, and the south of Italy in general, conquer the north at last.
He conquered the traditional powerhouses of AC Milan and Inter and Juventus when
