| It was a very experimental side that took the field against Uruguay, but the decisions were almost forced upon the Azzurri.
A slew of players - including Christian Vieri, Francesco Totti, Marco Delvecchio, Cristiano Doni, Paolo Maldini, Mark Iuliano, Demetrio Albertini and Marco Materazzi - were ruled out due to injury.
So the former Juventus striking partnership of Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi was reunited.
Francesco Coco's last minute test also saw the Barcelona winger sit on the sidelines after damaging an ankle during training. He was replaced by Gianluca Pessotto, but the Juventus winger limped off with a sprained knee within the first five minutes. The initial diagnosis is worrying as it is even feared he could miss the World Cup.
Giovanni Trapattoni gave the fans a pre-match boost when it was announced that he had reached an agreement to extend his contract by another two years. He will remain on the Italy bench until June 2004. The current deal was set to expire after this summer's World Cup.
There were many familiar faces in the Uruguay line-up, including Inter hero Alvaro Recoba, Perugia's Fabian O'Neill, Venezia duo Federico Magallanes and Pablo Garcia, and Juventus goalkeeper Fabian Carini.
The South Americans were clearly more passionate from the start and Alessio Tacchinardi was forced into a sliding tackle on Dario Silva just inside the box.
However, it was Italy who had the best early opportunity on 26 minutes. Gianluca Zambrotta's centre was fingertipped into the path of Inzaghi by the near post, but the striker incredibly turned wide of an open goal.
Soon after Recoba - evidently at home in the San Siro - curled a splendid drive from 20 metres that clipped the base of the upright.
There were four substitutions at half-time including an all-new front line of Vincenzo Montella and Marco Di Vaio.
In the first minute of the second half Gustavo Varela went close with an angled drive that went inches wide of the far post. Francesco Toldo was also forced into a fine save on Los Santos.
Up the other end of the field Di Vaio took advantage of a Mendez error, but lost control of the ball as he sprinted into the box. Fellow substitute Montella brought a splendid save out of goalkeeper Munua as his dipping volley - similar to the strike scored against England at Elland Road - was palmed out.
On a resulting corner kick Christian Panucci nodded in the Stefano Fiore centre to break the deadlock.
Uruguay fought back and Toldo required two attempts to clear a wicked free kick from . Moments later Sebastian Abreu met Roma winger Gianni Guigou's centre, but all the 'keeper could do was accidentally slap the ball into his own net.
Tiredness at this late stage of the season started to take its toll on both teams, but two minutes from time another Di Vaio counter-attack thumped the far post and soon after Montella's angled drive clipped the woodwork.
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