Drogba the difference for Buffon

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon paid tribute to Didier Drogba for his two-goal contribution to Chelsea FC's 3-2 UEFA Champions League aggregate win against the Turin side, but stopped short of conceding the result was proof of the Premier League's superiority over Italian club football.

'International class'
Drogba, who scored after 12 minutes of the opening leg at Stamford Bridge, tested Buffon with a curling free-kick in the first half in Turin before striking Chelsea's second equaliser late on in Tuesday's 2-2 draw. Juventus and Italy No1 Buffon was gracious in his praise of the Ivory Coast forward. "Undoubtedly when you weigh up the performances in the first and the second legs, Drogba showed beyond doubt he is a striker of true international class," Buffon said. "He would make the difference to any side in the world."

No inferiority complex
Though Buffon was prepared to bow to Drogba's quality, he refused to accept that Juve's elimination by Guus Hiddink's side was further evidence, along with Liverpool FC's 4-0 humbling of Real Madrid CF on Tuesday evening, of English football's growing domination of the European scene. "I don't think you can claim this is necessarily another example of English superiority," said Buffon. "We were at full strength in the away leg and I don't think we deserved to lose. In the return leg, we had a lot of players out, Pavel Nedvěd got injured after three minutes and after an hour we were down to ten men so I don't think there is any way you can claim quite that simplistically that Chelsea are a superior side."

'Great shame'
The 31-year-old Italy goalkeeper added that Michael Essien's equaliser on the stroke of half-time was hard to take, but remained sanguine in defeat. "Their first goal was a great shame," he said. "I think perhaps we didn't play the last few minutes of the first half too well. There was a world of difference between going in at half-time 1-0 up or level at 1-1. And in the end having to put three goals past Chelsea was a tall order. But we still have the league to play for and although we can't promise anything we will give our utmost until the very end and, if nothing else, look to reduce the [seven-point] gap between ourselves and Inter."