Italy will mark the end of nearly two-year of COVID-19 emergency as it plans to allow full-capacity grounds for the Inter Milan and Juventus showdown Sunday.
With their title hopes in the balance, fans will also be able to focus on domestic concerns following the national team's World Cup flop.
The so-called "Derby of Italy" in Turin will be one of the first matches to be played in front of a full house after also being one of the first to be played behind closed doors back in March 2020. The return to 100% capacity grounds comes for a match which could be crucial in deciding who claims the Scudetto.
With eight matches remaining, Inter's grip on its league crown has slipped after a collapse in form that leaves it third, six points behind leader and local rival AC Milan, who has a chance to slip further ahead when its hosts Bologna on Monday.
Juve, who at the start of February was 11 points behind Inter – then four points clear at the top – has surged to within a point of its old rival thanks to a 16-match unbeaten run which has almost guaranteed it a place in the Champions League and also made it a dark horse for the run-in.
Since losing at home to Atalanta in late November, Juve has picked up 38 points from a possible 48 despite never really performing to the standards coach Massimiliano Allegri set during his first spell at the Allianz Stadium.
Allegri, who has been heavily criticized for his team's often turgid style of football, revealed in an interview with magazine GQ that he went back on an agreement with Florentino Perez to succeed Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid to rejoin his old team.
"I'd already signed an agreement with Real Madrid, but in the morning I called the president and I told him that I wasn't going to Madrid because I'd chosen Juventus," Allegri said.
"I've not had any doubts at all ever since Juve called me in May."
Italy might have ended its COVID-19 state of emergency but the virus still looms over the league as on Thursday the Italian Football Federation said Napoli, chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis and the club doctor have been referred to its tribunal over three players not being kept in quarantine for the match with Juve in January.
Meanwhile, the five matches stopped by the winter spike in cases have all been rescheduled, with Inter's unplayed January fixture at Bologna now to be played on April 27 – just four weeks from the end of the season.
Napoli is having a difficult week ahead of its trip to Atalanta, as suspensions and a raft of injury doubts leave Milan's closest rivals without a host of key players.
Star striker Victor Osimhen and starting center back Amir Rrahmani are both suspended while Osimhen's replacement Andrea Petagna, Italy right back Giovanni Di Lorenzo and goalkeeper Alex Meret will all be absent with injury.
And coach Luciano Spalletti, whose side is three points off the top spot, is also sweating on midfielders Andre Franck Zambo Anguissa, Fabian Ruiz, Adam Ounas and Piotr Zielinski.
Working in its favor is Atalanta's abysmal home record this season, with just four home wins and 18 points collected from its 14 matches at the Gewiss Stadium.
