Buffon 'pledged to retire after Barca'

By Football Italia staff

Gigi Buffon reveals he had pledged to “quit football this season if I kept a clean sheet against Barcelona over two legs,” but Juventus made him take it back.

The 39-year-old goalkeeper was relatively untroubled over 180 minutes of their Champions League quarter-final, winning 3-0 in Turin and securing a 0-0 draw at Camp Nou.

“I had promised to quit football at the end of the season if I kept a clean sheet against Barcelona over two legs,” the captain told Sky Sport Italia.

“I told the President (Andrea Agnelli) and he said at times in life we say stupid things, not to worry and move on. So I had to take the promise back. The President has more experience than me and gave me good advice.

“Keeping a clean sheet against the Spaniards was very satisfying, because it was earned and shared with the group, with the lads in defence and all the others who ran their socks off to ensure we came away unharmed from those two games.”

Next up is Monaco in Wednesday’s semi-final, but last night there were a few scares in Juve’s 2-2 Serie A draw away to Atalanta.

“Yesterday’s match shows us that you can’t take anything for granted or let anything go when it comes to focus, because otherwise you will pay a heavy price. That is the glass-half-empty way of seeing it.

“On the other hand, the glass-half-full way is that, despite having a poor approach in the first half, we still came closer to winning this game than we did to losing it. That says a lot about our quality.

“The 2-2 result isn’t setting off any alarm bells and if anything will do us good going forward. A victory might’ve made us feel we could do without those characteristics we need for tough games.

“If you don’t put in the effort that the match demands, that ferocity, determination and unity of intent, then you’ll struggle against anyone.”

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