Gianluca Scamacca Makes New-Look Italy Squad For Euro Title Defence

Gianluca Scamacca has played his way into Italy's provisional squad for Euro 2024 after a phenomenal end to the season, as coach Luciano Spalletti announced on Thursday his provisional squad for Germany. Striker Scamacca was picked by Spalletti after scoring 11 goals and setting up four more in all competitions since the start of March, helping fire Atalanta to their historic Europa League triumph on Wednesday. The 25-year-old had been dropped for Italy's March friendlies with Venezuela and Ecuador by Spalletti who railed against footballers "playing on the PlayStation until four in the morning", a comment widely interpreted as being directed at Scamacca.

Spalletti has selected the in-form Scamacca in an attempt to resolve Italy's long-standing problem of finding reliable strikers.

Inconsistent Ciro Immobile -- one of the pivotal figures in Italy's Euro triumph three years ago -- has been dropped.

Should Scamacca lead the line for Italy he will play alongside Juventus star Federico Chiesa, whose teammate Nicolo Fagioli is a surprise inclusion among the midfielders after missing almost the entire season.

Fagioli made his first Juventus appearance since October on Monday following his seven-month ban for gambling on football matches.

The betting scandal cost Newcastle United midfielder Sandro Tonali his place on the plane for the Euro, which starts on June 14.

Fagioli is one of a number of younger players who have replaced veterans of the last Euro victory like former Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Marco Verratti who moved to Al-Arabi in Qatar last summer.

Verratti has never been called up by Spalletti since he replaced Roberto Mancini in August last year.

Manuel Locatelli earned himself a move to Juventus from Sassuolo by