Totti boost for tottering Roma

By Carlos Urrutia

After missing Matchday 9 through injury, captain Francesco Totti will take the field at the Mestalla stadium for AS Roma's game against Valencia CF knowing that their UEFA Champions League future is hanging by a thread.

Totti returns
The return of playmaker Totti along with Walter Samuel, Emerson da Rosa and Vincent Candela has given Roma renewed hope after a 1-0 defeat by the Spanish champions last week left them rooted to the foot of Group B with zero points. "We have some really important players back so I am quite optimistic," said the Roma coach Fabio Capello.

Montella missing
However, the Italian side are denied the services of Vincenzo Montella for the first time in this season's competition. He has an ankle injury and sits out the fixture along with fellow forward Marco Delvecchio, leaving Antonio Cassano as Totti's likely strike partner. Goals are something of a necessity for Roma as anything other than victory would leave them hoping for favours to keep their European dream alive.

Confident Capello
Capello rates Valencia among "the four best teams in Europe", but spoke confidently ahead of the match. "We have just one result to achieve tomorrow," he said. "With Totti fit to play, I am waiting for the final training session to decide my team. The president [Francesco Sensi] has called for better results and we will answer him on the pitch."

Valencia boosted
Another man back on his feet tomorrow night will be Valencia's Argentinian midfield player Kily González, who finally returned to action on Sunday after a three-month lay-off, playing 90 minutes of his side's 4-0 win at Rayo Vallecano. Coach Rafael Benítez played it safe in the same game, giving Pablo Aimar, David Albelda, Mauricio Pellegrino, Vicente Rodríguez, Francisco Rufete and John Carew a deserved break.

Players suspended
Miguel Angulo and Mista are both suspended, but Benítez is still able to field a powerful team for a game which could put Valencia in pole position in Group B, depending of the outcome of the AFC Ajax-Arsenal FC fixture. "We are having a good time at the moment, but we need to respect our opponents if we don't want to get a nasty surprise," he said. "We won't be up against the same Roma side as last week. They will be very tough. We cannot forget that they are an Italian side."

'Something to enjoy'
Carew, who scored the rather fortunate winning goal in last week's game, agreed. "If we play as we can, I'm sure we will win but we need to take care with Roma," the Norwegian said. "We will give our supporters something to enjoy tonight."  Someone else with something to look forward to is Valencia defender Anthony Reveillere. He joined the club from Stade Rennais FC as cover for the injured Curro Torres and could make his home Champions League debut in a game Roma simply cannot afford to lose.