Antonio Cassano claims Italy managed to win UEFA EURO 2020 despite ‘not having a striker,’ discounting Ciro Immobile and Andrea Belotti.
The Azzurri beat England on penalties after the 1-1 draw on Sunday evening at Wembley Stadium.
They scored 13 goals in seven games, a new record for Italy at a major tournament, with Immobile responsible for two of them.
“We had a huge problem, which is that we became champions of Europe despite not having a striker,” Cassano told his old friend Christian Vieri on Bobo TV.
“It’s a statement of fact. It’s unique, but the coach deserves all the credit for saying from the very first press conference that he was going into the Euros to win it.”
Immobile has 15 goals in 52 senior caps for Italy, as while he found the net in both group games against Turkey and Switzerland, he fired blanks against Austria, Belgium, Spain and England.
The 31-year-old has always been a very different player at club level, where Lazio play in a 3-5-2 formation, scoring 25 goals in 41 competitive games last season.
Torino centre-forward Belotti was competing for the starting spot, but his Italy record isn’t much better.
Il Gallo has 12 goals in 39 caps, but didn’t get a single strike during the European Championship.