Palermo host Catania at La Favorita in Sunday's Sicilian duel with both teams in desperate need of points.

The hosts will want to improve on their current position of 11th in the standings while Gianluca Atzori's Catania look to have finally got over a nightmare spell of injuries and will be anxious to move out of the drop zone.

The return of six players from injury is good news for Atzori, whose side lie 19th in the table having mustered just one victory and eight points so far.

Giusepe Bellusci, Jorge Martinez, Takayuki Morimoto, Simone Pesce, Marco Biagianti and Gianvito Plasmati have all recovered during the international break from their respective injuries and will be available.

However Catania, who won 4-0 at Palermo last season, are well aware they face a tough task with Sunday's rivals remain unbeaten at home.

"We must forget about last season's 4-0 triumph at Palermo," said striker Giuseppe Mascara.

"We are preparing for a different kind of match and we know it will be difficult to take a positive result at La Favorita."

Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini has given a vote of confidence to coach Walter Zenga ahead of the match.

Zenga had been under pressure following his team's surprising 3-1 defeat at Bologna in the last round, which marked their fourth defeat of the campaign and left the team four points behind Genoa, who hold the last European qualifying spot.

"Zenga will remain even if the team loses on Sunday," said Zamparini. "It has never entered my mind to sack him. He has the club's full support.

"In any case, against Catania I would be happy if my team wins 1-0 in the 90th minute and with a Catania own goal."

Palermo defender Mattia Cassani has also praised Zenga and believes the team is behind the manager.

"We are all behind Zenga," he said. "He knows how to lead this group and we hope to prove that on Sunday.

"We are playing at home and we want to display our quality and get a great result."

Cassani knows his team will have to show a vast improvement having claimed one point in the last three rounds while conceding eight goals.

"We are all ready to produce a great performance in this game," he said.

"We want to bounce back from our defeat against Bologna and there is no better game to do that than Sunday's one.

"We want to avenge last season's humiliating result and we know we have to remain concentrated and be patient."

Zenga will field Edison Cavani alongside Fabrizio Miccoli in attack.

The hosts will be without injured midfielder Giovanni Tedesco, midfielder Simone Kjaer and striker Davide Succi, but welcome back defender Federico Balzaretti.