Gianluigi Buffon 'only human', say Italy team-mates after Spain gaffe
Friday 7 October 2016 09:48, UK
Veteran Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made a rare gaffe against Spain but his team-mates refused to point the finger.
Spain had dominated Thursday's World Cup Qualifier but rarely tested Buffon until the Juventus goalkeeper's howler in the 55th minute.
Sergio Busquets' long pass appeared innocuous enough but Buffon rushed out of the penalty area to clear and completely missed the ball, allowing Vitolo to tuck into an empty net.
The set-back seemed to spark the Azzurri into life, though, and they secured a 1-1 draw when Daniele De Rossi converted a penalty with eight minutes remaining after Eder was tripped by Sergio Ramos.
"Even the best goalkeeper in history has shown that he is human - we had all begun to think he was a machine," said De Rossi.
"Of course, it would have been better if he had made that mistake while playing for Juventus."
Defender Leonardo Bonucci - a team-mate of Buffon with club as well as country - also shrugged off the 38-year-old's error.
"I can't do anything but say thanks to Gigi for what he does for Juventus and the national team. He is a superstar," Bonucci said. "He showed that even he is a human being, and we had some doubts about that until today."
Buffon himself cut a philosophical figure after his moment to forget.
"In a year-and-a-half, one can laugh about it. If it happens again in two days or 20 days, we will laugh less," he told reporters.
"We managed to recover and my team-mates were really commendable because after the goal we found a physical and mental force to rescue a match which seemed impossible looking at how the first hour went.
"I had too many ideas in my head on how I was going to kick the ball. I was scared of kicking it off him and I thought of another way, but then ended up making a hash of it."
Buffon, who won the World Cup with Italy in 2006, broke a 22-year-old Serie A record last season for not conceding a goal, going 974 consecutive minutes before he was finally beaten.
Spain and Italy are level on points in Group G after following up opening wins with a point but Albania moved top after a 2-0 victory in Lichtenstein maintained their perfect start to qualifying.
