Buffon aggrieved at justice for Juve

After pulling off a string of fine saves during his side's opening day encounter with FC Girondins de Bordeaux, Gianluigi Buffon admitted that Juventus were caught off guard by the well-organised French champions during a 1-1 draw in Turin he described as "the right result."

Plašil goal
Buffon was called upon to rescue his side on three occasions before Vincenzo Iaquinta thumped Fabio Cannavaro's through ball past substitute goalkeeper Ulrich Ramé on 63 minutes to give Juve the lead. However, after twice denying Fernando and saving adroitly from Yoann Gourcuff, Buffon was finally beaten when Gourcuff's free-kick was touched in at the far post by Jaroslav Plašil with a quarter of an hour remaining.

'Right result'
"They caused us more problems than we expected, particularly the way they stopped our build-up play at source," Buffon told uefa.com. "It was obvious that we couldn't find the way through and create enough chances for our strikers in the first half. We didn't play as well as we could have done but it wasn't just down to us – they played very well. In the end the draw was the right result; they didn't steal anything and we know we have been in a match with a very good side."

Buffon form
Buffon's performance was perhaps no great surprise. The former Parma FC custodian played superbly for Italy in their recent FIFA World Cup qualifying victories over Georgia and Bulgaria and has been back to his best for the Bianconeri this season. Team-mate Claudio Marchisio described him afterwards as "the No1 goalkeeper in the world" but the modest 31-year-old considered his evening's work just another day at the office.

'Great joy'
"I've been playing well but I've been in this sort of form for the last 15 years or so; it's just that I had a few injury problems that prevented me from training normally and that meant that I struggled a bit for four or five months," he said. "I received a mountain of criticism during that time but the more criticism you receive the greater the joy when you do well. The conditions weren't easy today either; the pitch, the rain and the slippery ball made it very difficult for outfield players, let alone the goalkeeper."

'Taste of bitterness'
For all the pride he took in his own performance, Buffon still rued two points dropped. "The result was very disappointing and we all had feelings of regret in the dressing room afterwards," he admitted. "When you go ahead in a hard-fought match like that you think that you can hold on to all three points but that's the way it goes. There's a slight taste of bitterness to the result but we should compliment them as well. We threw away the chance to win the game but it's only the first match and when you play sides of this standard you know that sometimes you have to settle for a draw."