20 March 2016
As the time ticked over to four minutes in today’s Derby Della Mole at the Stadio Olimpico, Gianluigi Buffon afforded himself the briefest of moments to bask in his remarkable achievement with an understated double fist pump after breaking Sebastiano Rossi’s Serie A record for minutes without conceding a goal.
At that moment, Buffon had not picked a ball out of his net for 930 minutes since Antonio Cassano’s late consolation strike for Sampdoria at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in January and while the legendary keeper would be beaten on the day by Andrea Belotti’s 48th-minute penalty, there was still plenty of reason to celebrate come the final whistle.
Typically however in his post-match interview, the Juventus skipper was quick to pay tribute to the team-mates that have allowed him to reach such a stunning landmark.
He began: “The lion’s share of the credit should go to the guys in front of me right from our forwards who run the hard yards all the way back to our rearguard which features some of the world’s best defenders.
"I began thinking about the record after we beat Atalanta in Bergamo but people were asking me about it long before then even after three or four consecutive clean sheets! I turned it over in my mind a number of times before reading any of the newspapers and I had never imagined that I would eventually be the sole holder of this record.”
Besides his Bianconeri comrades, Buffon also paused to express his thanks to those off the field that have helped him remain consistently at the top of his profession deep into the later years of his stellar career.
“There are so many people to thank for allowing me, at 38 years old, to continue to perform at the highest level. I owe a lot to my family who give me peace of mind and a wonderful life off the field and when you have that support behind you, anything is possible.”
While the number on everyone’s lips now may well be 973, just one counted in the mind of one of the Old Lady’s most loyal servants: three.
“Once we had played the first four minutes, the only thing that was on my mind was the three points. We needed to come out and show that our Champions League exit was not going to derail our season and that is exactly what we did. I’m delighted that the boys replied in such emphatic fashion today.”
