Juve's Buffon hailed as a great

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-21 09:38

ROME: Veteran Italian international Gianluigi Buffon was hailed as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time as Juventus underlined their Serie A title credentials with a 2-0 home victory against lowly Livorno on Saturday.

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon reacts during his team's Italian Serie A match against Livorno at the Olympic Stadium in Turin, Italy, on Saturday. Juventus won 2-0. [Agencies]

"He's the best goalkeeper ever. Players like him and like (Diego) Maradona are one-offs, I've never seen anyone similar," Livorno president Aldo Spinelli said.

"Buffon stopped everything. We shot from everywhere and he was always there. He didn't give an inch."

Buffon came out on five minutes to block a close-range effort from Francesco Tavano before Vincenzo Iaquinta rose between two defenders to head home Mauro Camoranesi's cross on eight minutes.

Juve had to thank Buffon again on 11 minutes as he tipped over Nico Pulzetti's deflected shot.

Antonio Candreva also went close for the visitors, shooting just wide, before Juve doubled their lead in clinical fashion.

Camoranesi played a delightful through ball for Claudio Marchisio who clipped a delicate left-foot shot over goalkeeper Alfonso De Lucia.

Still Livorno didn't lie down and Buffon had to be alert to close down Cristiano Lucarelli when through one-on-one with the Italy stopper.

Buffon was on hand again moments later to beat away a shot from the resulting corner.

The former Parma goalkeeper was monumental in the second half as well, poaching a cross from Antonio Filippini to deny Lucarelli a chance and then saving brilliantly from a Tomas Danilevicius header.

Livorno pushed forward to the end but this was a day when it looked as if nothing would get past Buffon.

Italy's No 1 goalie admitted he was at the top of his game.

"It's a good period for me. It's nothing special but when you find yourself in good shape after months of pain all over your body, the joy and desire to play come back," he said.

"We won well despite Livorno giving us some problems, we had a great game."

Juve went three points clear at the top ahead of Sunday's matches, although Genoa and Sampdoria could replace them at the summit.

The manner of Juve's victory was impressive as they overcame the absence of the likes of Diego, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Del Piero, Felipe Melo and Momo Sissoko to still win at a canter.

Coach Ciro Ferrara also opted to leave striker Amauri on the bench in favor of David Trezeguet.

But he noted that his team looked tired following its midweek Champions League exertions.

"We're satisfied but we let Livorno have too many chances. Maybe we paid a bit for tiredness, when you have a lot of commitments it's not easy to find some energy," he said.

"Livorno played a great match, Buffon made some incredible saves. However, other than the two goals we could have put the game to bed with some other opportunities."

But with four wins out of four, Juventus have demonstrated their title credentials and there is an increasing feeling that they can push champions Inter all the way this season.

In the day's other game, Napoli and Udinese played out a dull 0-0 draw in Naples.

AFP