Gianluigi Buffon and Juventus endure more regret as prize slips away again

Gianluigi Buffon stood with his hands on his hips, staring vacantly into the distance and not moving for what felt like an age. Behind him the Real Madrid supporters were raucously celebrating their third goal and their second in the space of three minutes, flooring Juventus and leaving Buffon looking like a man who knew that the dream was over long before the clock had ticked down.

This was anything but the “perfect finale” Buffon had talked about 24 hours earlier, when the 39-year-old expressed his hope that he would get his hands on the only major trophy to elude him in a distinguished career that has spanned three decades. Buffon has won eight Serie A titles, a World Cup in 2006 and represented Italy 168 times, yet there is no Champions League winners medal in his trophy cabinet and, realistically, probably never will be.

It was an evening that brought with it an uncomfortable sense of deja vu for Buffon and Juventus, who have now lost seven of their nine European Cup finals and could be forgiven for fearing the worst whenever they get to this stage of the competition. Buffon has appeared in three of those showpieces and the latest ended in humiliating fashion as Real Madrid demonstrated once again why they are the most accomplished team in Europe by a distance.

In one respect Buffon was proved right. Asked beforehand whether this would come down to a contest between himself and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Juventus goalkeeper replied: “I’m not so conceited as to say that, I would never put myself on the same pedestal as Cristiano Ronaldo. My role is to defend; we are complete opposites. He is able to determine the outcome of a game more than me.”

That was certainly the case as Ronaldo struck Madrid’s first goal and inflicted further damage with his second. Casemiro and Marco Asensio got the other Madrid goals on a night when Buffon was beaten four times, twice via deflections. It was that kind of occasion for the veteran goalkeeper and his team-mates, who totally lost their way in the second half as Luka Modric and Toni Kroos took control of midfield and Ronaldo does what he does best.

What a transformation from the opening 45 minutes, when Juventus took the game to Madrid, attacking with conviction and scoring a goal worthy of winning the Champions League, let alone merely equalising in a final.

Unfortunately for Mario Mandzukic, the spectacular overhead kick that he speared beyond Keylor Navas, the Madrid keeper, at the end of a lovely move involving Gonzalo Higuaín and Alex Sandro, brought only ephemeral joy. Juventus could not sustain that high-tempo approach after the interval.

Paulo Dybala, who scored twice in the quarter-final win over Barcelona and is so highly regarded, never imposed himself on the game and was withdrawn.

Higuaín, other than the assist for Mandzukic’s goal, carried little threat, while the influence of Sami Khedira and Miralem Pjanic, who was also substituted in the second half after picking up an injury, started to wane.

The sight of Juan Cuadrado receiving a red card in the 84th minute for a second bookable offence rather summed up the second half. It was a poor decision from the officials, with Sergio Ramos not for the first time in his career guilty of play-acting, yet by that stage everything Juventus tried to do seemed to be going wrong.

The solid defensive base on which this Champions League campaign has been built evaporated. Juventus conceded more times in 90 minutes against Madrid than they did in the previous 12 matches in the competition put together as the Old Lady’s experienced back-line started to look their age.

It was impossible not to feel some sympathy for Buffon, who trudged across with the rest of the players to applaud the Juventus supporters that had stayed behind as Sergio Ramos hoisted the European Cup into the Cardiff sky. Buffon has been an extraordinary servant to Juve, the club he joined for a world record €51m in 2001 to replace Edwin van der Sar, and it will be a strange day when someone else is wearing that No1 jersey for the club that have dominated Italian football for the past six seasons.

It feels like he has been around forever. When Buffon made his debut as a professional footballer in 1995, George Weah and Roberto Baggio were lining up for Milan against him, two legends of the game who are now in their fifties. He has clocked up more than 1,000 games since, including 108 appearances in the Champions League, and is the only player in this Juventus squad to also have featured in the defeat against Milan on penalties in the 2003 final.

Although Massimiliano Allegri left the door open to the possibility of Buffon trying again next season, with the Juventus manager refusing to accept the idea that several players in his team have reached the end of a cycle and that it is time to usher in a new era, age and history appear to be against the Italian goalkeeper. Perhaps that was going through his mind when he stood alone on his penalty area after Madrid’s third goal.