Who Will Score Italy’s Goals As Their European Title Defense Begins

Italy’s defence of their European title begins tonight against Albania, with the setting for their first game of the tournament bringing back fond memories.

Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion will feature as the backdrop for Luciano Spalletti’s men, and minds will race back to the last time Italy played in this stadium at a major tournament: that semi final in July 2006. 18 years ago, Italy and Germany played out one of the finest semi final games in recent World Cup history. A tense-but-enthralling game, which was 0-0 for 118 of the 120 minutes, ended in victory to the Azzurri after Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero broke German hearts.

Del Piero’s goal, which killed off any lingering German hopes of making the final of their own tournament, illustrates the gap in what Marcello Lippi had to work with then and what Spalletti has to work with now. With the seconds ticking down, Alberto Gilardino received Francesco Totti’s pass just inside the German half, ran forward and waited. After waiting for what felt like an eternity, he slipped the most perfectly-weighted of reverse passes into the feet of the approaching Del Piero. He bent the ball into the opposite top corner, giving Jens Lehman no chance.

It was over, and Italy went through to the final in Berlin.

Lippi was in a position to bring two of the three attacking players involved in the goal — Gilardino and Del Piero — off the bench. Spalletti has no such luxury, not even close, and the former Napoli coach is surely going into this tournament wondering where the goals are going to come from.

In 2006, Lippi could call up 31-goal Capocannoniere Luca Toni, Champions League winners Del Piero and Pippo Inzaghi, young blood Gilardino, jack-in-the-box Vincenzo Iaquinta and Totti. This give Italy a well-rounded attack. Spalletti by contrast has been searching for anything resembling a a proven goalscorer, as was predecessor Roberto Mancini.

Of the 13 goals Italy scored en route to winning Euro 2020 three years ago, only two were from a traditional striker, with Ciro Immobile grabbing both in the first two games. The rest of Italy’s goals came via wingers, midfielders and defenders. Of course, Mancini’s system only had one striker starting at any given time, but as Euro 2020 wore on, neither Immobile or Andrea Belotti looked capable of scoring as Italy squeaked over the line at Wembley.

Spalletti is now facing the same issue. Post-Euro 2020, Mancini slowly phased out both Immobile and Belotti, but was in such desperate need of a new striker he drafted in Mateo Retegui from Argentina. Retegui had never so much as played a single game in Europe, but Mancini handed him his first cap against England in March 2023. Retegui scored on his debut and subsequently moved to Genoa last summer from parent club Boca Juniors, yet he struggled for goals in Serie A last season, managing just seven despite Genoa over-performing and finishing 11th.

Gianluca Scamacca is Spalletti’s best bet of finding a reliable goalscorer. Scamacca returned to Italy after a disappointing season with West Ham in the Premier League, and in the first half of the season his form didn’t improve with new side Atalanta. Spalletti dropped Scamacca for the March friendlies against Venezuela and Ecuador and this appeared to give the striker the wake up call he very much needed. In the final third of the season Scamacca scored 12 goals in all competitions, including two in the brilliant 3-0 away win against Liverpool in the Europa League; one in the semi final against Marseille and an exquisite bicycle kick against Fiorentina in the semi final of the Coppa Italia.

In all, Scamacca ended the season on 19 goals, and goes into Euro 2024 as Spalletti’s most in-form striker. Yet Scamacca only has one goal for Italy in 16 games and whether he can transfer his club form to the national stage remains to be seen. Italy has a history of strikers who could never make the switch from club to international football in the same way, yet all eyes will be on Scamacca to lead the line.

Spalletti will be hoping for goals from the likes of Federico Chiesa, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Nicolo Barella, much like Mancini did three years ago. Only Serbia, Czech Republic and tonight’s opponents Albania scored fewer goals in qualification for Euro 2024 than Italy. Yet if they have any aspirations of trying to retain their European title, Spalletti will need more from his strikers than Mancini got from his three years ago.