Totti and Miccoli return for Italy
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Totti aims for finals
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MILAN, Italy (Reuters) -- AS Roma's Francesco Totti and Juventus striker Fabrizio Miccoli return to the Italy squad for Saturday's Euro 2004 Group Nine climax against Azerbaijan.
The pair missed September's qualifiers against Wales and Serbia/Montenegro because of fitness problems, but return in Reggio where Italy must win to ensure automatic qualification for next year's finals in Portugal.
Totti's return is particularly relevant given the absence through injury of Juventus forward Alessandro Del Piero.
Coach Giovanni Trapattoni is likely to play the Roma forward behind a front pairing of Christian Vieri and Filippo Inzaghi.
Miccoli, who has now fully recovered from an appendix operation, is likely to start on the bench although Trapattoni has often chosen to insert the diminutive forward in the latter stages of a game.
Juventus midfielder Alessio Tacchinardi is ruled out through injury but the coach has plenty of cover in that area with Cristiano Zanetti, Gennaro Gattuso and Simone Perrotta battling for the two central midfield slots.
Azerbaijan are bottom of the group but the Italians cannot afford to slip up -- a draw or a defeat could hand top spot to Wales if Mark Hughes's side beat Serbia/Montenegro in Cardiff.
Italy squad:
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Francesco Toldo (Inter Milan)
Defenders: Fabio Cannavaro (Inter), Matteo Ferrari (Parma), Nicola Legrottaglie (Juventus), Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan), Massimo Oddo (Lazio), Christian Panucci (AS Roma)
Midfielders: Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Stefano Fiore (Lazio), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan), Simone Perrotta (Chievo), Gianluca Zambrotta (Juventus), Cristiano Zanetti (Inter)
Forwards: Bernardo Corradi (Lazio), Marco Delvecchio (AS Roma), Marco Di Vaio (Juventus), Filippo Inzaghi (AC Milan), Fabrizio Miccoli (Juventus), Francesco Totti (AS Roma), Christian Vieri (Inter).
