Although he has yet to play in UEFA club competition and was unused in Italy's UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying campaign, Alessandro Matri is a coming force in the Italian game, the striker's predatory instincts having brought him a steady stream of goals for both Cagliari Calcio and current club Juventus, where he arrived in January 2011.

• Born in Lombardy, he joined AC Milan as a youngster and made one Serie A appearance for the Rossoneri before being released to pursue his career in Serie C1 with AC Prato and AC Lumezzane.

• Moved up two divisions in two years, playing Serie B football for Rimini Calcio in 2006/07 before leaving the mainland for Sardinia and making his Serie A bow with Cagliari, scoring on his top-flight debut in a 2-0 win against SSC Napoli.

• Predominantly a substitute during his first two seasons with the Sardinian club, he nevertheless scored six times in each campaign; as a regular starter in 2009/10 he raised his goal haul to 13 to help the Isolani avoid relegation.

• Scored 11 goals in the first half of the 2010/11 campaign, resulting in a mid-season transfer to Juventus, where he added nine further strikes − the first two of them against the club he had just left − to conclude the season as the fourth highest scorer in the division.

• Scored on his debut for Italy − 20 minutes after coming on in a 2-0 friendly defeat of Ukraine in Kyiv on 29 March 2011 − and made further appearances from the bench in subsequent games against the Republic of Ireland, Poland and Uruguay before starting for the first time at home to the United States on 29 February 2012.