Antonio Cassano - International Career

International Career

Cassano made his debut for the Italian senior team on 12 November 2003, aged 21, in friendly match against Poland in which he scored his first goal.

He was part of Italy's UEFA Euro 2004 squad as a reserve, but after Totti was suspended following a spitting incident with Christian Poulsen in a group match against Denmark, Cassano was inserted into the starting lineup for a 1–1 draw with Sweden in which he scored. He also netted a last-minute winner in a 2–1 victory over Bulgaria, but Italy were eliminated in the group stage on goal difference.

Cassano was left off the final roster for the 2006 World Cup.

In September 2006 he but was called up for two Euro 2008 qualifying. Finally he was included in the UEFA Euro 2008 roster, and went scoreless in the tournament as Italy were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Spain after a penalty shootout.

After a two-year absence from the Azzurri team, and following widespread criticism from the media towards Marcello Lippi about his exclusion from the 2010 World Cup squad, Cassano was readmitted into the Italian team on 6 August 2010 by new head coach Cesare Prandelli for his first game in charge of the team, a friendly match against Côte d'Ivoire to played on 10 August at Upton Park, London. Almost a month later, in Italy's Euro 2012 qualifier played in Estonia Cassano scored the tying goal in a 1–2 away victory and also assisted Leonardo Bonucci's second goal with a back-heel. Cassano scored a long-range goal from just outside the box in Italy's 5–0 UEFA Euro 2012 qualifier win over the Faroe Islands. He scored again against Estonia helping Italy secure a 3–0 win.

He played 6 matches and scored one goal against Ireland during UEFA Euro 2012, where the Italian team achieved the final then lost 4–0 against Spain. In July 2012 he was fined by UEFA for making a homophobic comment at a press conference during UEFA Euro 2012. At the conference, when asked if he thought there were any homosexual players in the Italian team, he replied "I hope there are none". He later issued a statement saying he had been misinterpreted.