Juventus icon Alessandro Del Piero and Sampdoria's former Roma and Real Madrid forward Antonio Cassano have been named in Italy coach Roberto Donadoni's 24-man squad for Euro 2008.
The inclusion of both players was in doubt until recently but 'bad boy' Cassano has recently been back to his twinkling best while Del Piero has forced his way into the squad by tapping a rich seam of goals that gave him his first Serie A marksmen's trophy.
Donadoni declined to speak about the inclusion of 33-year-old Del Piero, whose place was probably clinched by a last-day hat-trick against Cassano's Sampdoria.
He was also tight-lipped about the exclusion of AC Milan finisher Pippo Inzaghi who has been back to his deadly best for the last two years.
But he was drawn to comment on Cassano, who many pundits said blew his chances with a blast-from-the-past outburst against a ref three months ago - but who put on an eye-catching display against Juve, scoring one goal and setting up another after a trademark ball-juggling feint.
''The time to talk of taking gambles is over. Antonio knows he has a great chance. He'll settle into this group. I know what he can give in technical terms''.
The rest of the squad - which will be whittled down to 23 before the championships - was largely as expected.
Italy officials gave Donadoni a vote of confidence going into the Switzerland-Austria tournament (June 7-29) by extending his contract, after months of talks, until June 2010.
The squad meets on Sunday at Italy's training camp outside Florence for three days of training in which Donadoni will choose which man to chop.
Then, after a May 30 friendly against Belgium, two days' rest and another three-day session, they'll travel to their tournament camp at Bern south of Vienna before taking on the Netherlands in Bern on June 9.
Italy have the toughest Euro 2008 group.
As well as the Dutch it features old rivals France - which Italy beat on penalties to win the 2006 World Cup - and one of many pundits' dark horses, Romania.
Here's the squad unveiled Tuesday:
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Marco Amelia (Livorno), Morgan De Sanctis (Sevilla).
Defenders: Cristian Panucci (Roma), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Andrea Barzagli (Palermo), Marco Materazzi (Inter), Fabio Grosso (Olympique Lione), Gianluca Zambrotta (Barcelona), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus).
Midfielders: Rino Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Massimo Ambrosini (AC Milan), Daniele De Rossi, Simone Perrotta, Alberto Aquilani (Roma), Mauro German Camoranesi (Juventus), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina).
Forwards: Luca Toni (Bayern Monaco), Marco Borriello (Genoa), Antonio Di Natale, Fabio Quagliarella (Udinese), Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus), Antonio Cassano (Sampdoria).
