Gianluigi Buffon is a Juventus talisman, and also a talisman for Italian football. His experience, including 14 seasons in goal for the Old Lady, leaves him in no doubt of the threat that Lionel Messi poses to his goal in the Champions League final.

Jordi Gil

This is the first time that Buffon is coming up against Lionel Messi, one of the toughest challenges of his career. "Messi is an alien, that dedicates himself to playing with humans. The only hope is that this Saturday he will be from earth, like rest of us," explained the Italian keeper.

The goalkeeper said that Barcelona's strike-force is "the strongest in the world", although he added: "We will try to use our weapons, not to stop them but to limit their danger."

The last time Barcelona played an Italian team in a European final was a 4-0 defeat by AC Milan in 1994, though Buffon said: "This Barça is much stronger than that one."

He also spoke about his opposite number, Marc-Andre ter Stegen. "He's an important goalkeeper, he's forming, he has a lot of quality and a great personality, he deserves to play for Barcelona."