At first Gianluigi Buffon's response to the penalty that took Juventus out of the Champions League and to his red card looked just like an emotional outburst but now the Italian has made things worse by refusing to apologise.
It should be said that at no point was Buffon's outburst the correct way to show his displeasure at Oliver's decision to give Real Madrid a late spot kick following on from Mehdi Benatia's shove on Lucas Vazquez.
The incident looked like a soft penalty at first and Buffon's reaction was totally over the top but at least it was slightly understandable. The Juve keeper knew his time in the Champions League was about to be over.
Even after the match when the 40 year old said that English ref Oliver had a 'bin for a heart' you could understand that his emotions were still boiling over having seen Cristiano Ronaldo score the penalty that sent the Old Lady out.
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However a few days later and he should have calmed down, seen the error of his ways, and apologised to the man in black. Instead, speaking via Sky Italia, he doubled down on his criticism of the referee, saying:
"I don't have to make up for anything, because I am a human being who puts passion, sentiment and anger into what I do. You find a way to speak, right or wrong, that at times can seem excessive... but this is me, I am Gigi Buffon.
"The other night the game had finished an hour and a half ago, so consequently what one expresses at that moment are sentiments and thoughts that are strong, in certain respects raw, but the sentiments of a man who won't hide behind a veil of hypocrisy and instead throws out what is bubbling in his guts. End of story.
"Right there, you cannot ask a man who lives sport as deeply as I do to be balanced, because even if I expressed these feelings in an exaggerated way, they were still logical thoughts. I'd say them all again. Maybe with a different type of language, one that was more civilised, let's say. But the content remains and I stand by all of it.
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"Even if I was excessive, I said what I thought, that he should not have given that penalty. A referee with more experience would not have blown his whistle and decided not to become the protagonist of the match. He would've left it running, turned around and let the two teams fight it out in extra time. Let the pitch do the talking.
"I'm sure Oliver will have a great career in future, but he's too young to officiate a match like that. The beauty, the imponderable nature of football, means that unfortunately this young man found himself in a situation that was too complex, too garbled and too big for him to deal with.
"So at the end of the day, what I said after the match, I don't hold any rancour towards Oliver. I'm not even angry with him. It all ended there, but naturally in the heat of the moment one does feel I'm not saying penalised... I felt defrauded. Not defrauded of the result, but of the night. It was a night that can never be repeated."
Even John Cena's waded into the row!
It's saddeningly and maddeningly arrogant from Buffon to question Oliver's experience and his guts as in the end he made the correct decision and considering the situation a lot of refs wouldn't have had the testicular fortitude to point to the spot.
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Juve had battled back from the 3-0 first leg loss to be level at 3-3 and heading for extra time when Benatia made the error that handed Ronaldo the chance from 12 yards out, and he needed no second invitation blasting the ball into the top corner.
It's just a shame Buffon didn't handle himself so well under such pressure or afterwards.
Featured Image Credit:Topics:ย Football News, Michael Oliver, Serie A, Gianluigi Buffon, Juventus, Champions League, Real Madrid, Italy
