Given that Juventus handily swept aside Barcelona in the quarter-finals of this season's Champions League, it's hard to believe that there's a team the Serie A champions were particularly worried about facing.
'Bianconeri' skipper and modern day superhero Gianluigi Buffon, however, was relieved to have avoided Premier League title holders, Leicester City.
The Foxes may have been dispatched by Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals, but even so, the World Cup winning goalkeeper was glad he was pitted against Messi, Neymar and Suarez instead of Jamie Vardy and co.
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After successfully dealing with FC Porto in the last 16, Buffon commented to reporters that he wanted to avoid the Foxes in the final eight.
Can anyone get past Buffon and co in the Champions League, this season? Image: PA
It was a comment that many took with a pinch of salt, given Juve's obvious qualities and Leicester's struggles in the Premier League, this season. However, the Italy captain has since moved to clarify just how sincere his statement was and the typically gentlemanly reasoning behind it.
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"I meant it when I said I didn't want to face Leicester in the quarter-finals. It would've been really sad to end that fairy-tale."
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Of course, it shouldn't be lost on anyone that, as classy a statement as this may be, it's essentially Buffon saying 'make no mistake about it, we'd have fucking battered Leicester all over the shop.'
Juventus performed the unthinkable against Luis Enrique's Barcelona in the quarter-finals, completely shutting out the La Liga giants over two legs, emerging as 3-0 victors on aggregate, courtesy of a dominant display in Turin and an imperious defensive performance in Catalonia, on Tuesday.
Buffon and his teammates will face Europe's newest darlings, Monaco, in the semi-finals where Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci will be put to the test by the experience of a rejuvenated Radamel Falcao and the hottest prospect on the continent, 18-year-old Kylian Mbappe.
This is what awaits Juve in the Champions League semi-finals. Image: PA
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Meanwhile, in the other semi-final, a repeat of the 2014 and 2016 finals will take place, with current holders Real Madrid facing city rivals Atletico in a bid to become the first team to ever successfully defend the Champions League (AC Milan's back-to-back victories in 1989 and 1990 came before the European Cup was reinvented as the Champions League).
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Topics: Leicester City, Football, Gianluigi Buffon, Juventus, Champions League
