For weeks, the talk in Turin had been of destiny. It was in Berlin that Gigi Buffon, Andrea Pirlo and Andrea Barzagli lifted the World Cup together in 2006. Juventus, just like that year’s victorious Italy side, had passed through Dortmund to get here and been designated as the “home” team for the final. The Olympiastadion DJ surely knew what he was doing when he played the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army – the unofficial anthem of Italy’s World Cup triumph.
Perhaps the most superstitious Juventus supporters might even have been reassured to see this game start disastrously. Where Zinedine Zidane needed seven minutes to beat Buffon in 2006, Ivan Rakitic took just four. Barzagli did not get on to the pitch during the World Cup final, and was not supposed to start here, either. Thrust into the line-up after Giorgio Chiellini injured his calf in training, the veteran centre-back had only just returned from a thigh problem of his own. There was a hint of rust, of ponderousness, in his reaction to the interchange between Jordi Alba and Neymar that teed up Rakitic’s opening goal.
He redeemed himself soon after with a lunging challenge to break up another attack, but Juventus overall looked rattled. The ease with which Barcelona were pulling defenders apart called to mind another, less happy, Italian final that Buffon, Pirlo and Barzagli all played in – the one they lost 4-0 to Spain at Euro 2012.
Perhaps that is the way this game would have gone, had Buffon not thwarted Dani Alves with a brilliant one-handed save nine minutes later. Thirty-seven-year-old goalkeepers are not supposed to move with such agility, but Buffon has rarely showed much interest in the expectations of others. He was the oldest player on the pitch on Saturday, but is performing as well today as he ever has.
He is a man who believes in fate. “I think every one of us has a destiny,” Buffon said four years ago. Our lives are not mapped out, he said, but, “I think destiny gives you signs and little shoves. And then it’s up to you to interpret those and decide whether to follow a destiny or not.”
He chose to follow his in 2006, staying with the Juventus team that had just been relegated to Serie B as a result of the Calciopoli scandal. He has been rewarded with four consecutive Serie A titles. But not yet a Champions League. You can be sure he has not forgotten the defeat he suffered to Milan on this stage in 2003.
He gave everything on Saturday to avoid a repeat. After denying Alves in the first half, he followed up by thwarting Luis Suárez early in the second. Soon afterward, Álvaro Morata drew Juventus level. For 13 glorious minutes, Juventus could believe that destiny was smiling on them once again.
It was not to be. Buffon could only parry Messi’s 68th-minute attempt into the path of Suárez, who crashed it into the unguarded net with glee. Might the goalkeeper have done better on this occasion, pushing the initial shot around the post instead of back into danger? Perhaps, although bigger questions would surely need to be asked of a defence that allowed both forwards to stream through.
Buffon was beaten again soon afterward, this time by Neymar, but the match officials confirmed his immediate claim that the Brazilian had used his hand. The bianconeri replied by throwing men forward. In the game’s dying moments, Ter Stegen made saves from both Claudio Marchisio and Carlos Tevez.
In the end, though, the Italians’ narrative was broken, with Neymar making up for his earlier disappointment by scoring Barcelona’s third in the final seconds of injury time. Juventus were beaten, as the bookmakers’ pre-game odds had predicted they would be. Destiny, it seems, is no match for the form book.
Or perhaps this story has not yet arrived at its conclusion. We might have seen the last of Pirlo at Juventus. He said beforehand that the final would be his last for the club if they won. Many still expect him to move on despite the defeat.
Buffon, though, is going nowhere. He has already confessed to hoping that he might hang around long enough to play for Italy at the 2018 World Cup. He will hope to add further successes with Juventus in the meantime. “This club should be at least in the semi-finals every season,” he said this week.
A challenging summer awaits, with richer clubs circling around key players. But the £100m that Juventus have earned from this season’s Champions League run gives them plenty of options. Buffon is not the only man who believes his club will grace this stage again sooner rather than later.
