Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon angrily confronted the referee Michael Oliver after a late penalty went against Juventus in the team’s Champions League match against Real Madrid. Buffon received a red card. Credit Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
MADRID — Gianluigi Buffon, Juventus’s veteran goalkeeper, has lived through all the highs and lows of soccer, from winning the World Cup with Italy to getting relegated with his club because of a match-fixing scandal.
But even by such standards, his exit from the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night will rank as one the most dramatic events in his career. In the dying moments of the game, Buffon was shown a red card for angrily protesting a penalty that allowed Real Madrid to advance to the semifinals of the competition.
As Buffon left the field under the applause of the Madrid crowd, the man who stepped forward to take the penalty was inevitably Cristiano Ronaldo, the undisputed goal-scoring machine of the Champions League.
Ronaldo had to wait several minutes while Buffon’s teammates surrounded the referee and argued about the ejection. But Ronaldo kept his own composure and eventually hit an unstoppable shot past the Juventus replacement keeper, Wojciech Szczesny, before taking off his shirt and running toward the corner flag to celebrate. Remarkably, Ronaldo’s winning penalty kick was his 120th goal in the competition and also made him the first player to score in 11 consecutive Champions League games.
MADRID — Gianluigi Buffon, Juventus’s veteran goalkeeper, has lived through all the highs and lows of soccer, from winning the World Cup with Italy to getting relegated with his club because of a match-fixing scandal.
But even by such standards, his exit from the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night will rank as one the most dramatic events in his career. In the dying moments of the game, Buffon was shown a red card for angrily protesting a penalty that allowed Real Madrid to advance to the semifinals of the competition.
As Buffon left the field under the applause of the Madrid crowd, the man who stepped forward to take the penalty was inevitably Cristiano Ronaldo, the undisputed goal-scoring machine of the Champions League.
Ronaldo had to wait several minutes while Buffon’s teammates surrounded the referee and argued about the ejection. But Ronaldo kept his own composure and eventually hit an unstoppable shot past the Juventus replacement keeper, Wojciech Szczesny, before taking off his shirt and running toward the corner flag to celebrate. Remarkably, Ronaldo’s winning penalty kick was his 120th goal in the competition and also made him the first player to score in 11 consecutive Champions League games.
