OLIVER WAS COOL LIKE CRISTIANO

THERE has been so much drama in Europe this week but nothing came close to the showdown between Real Madrid and Juventus.

I have always loved Italian football and, really, they should have had two representatives in the Champions League semi-finals. Roma’s win against Barcelona was miraculous but Juventus were desperately unlucky not to trump them.

The flashpoint, of course, was the penalty awarded by English referee Michael Oliver and the subsequent red card for Juve keeper Gianluigi Buffon.

Fair play to Oliver for making the call. It wasn’t ‘stonewall’ by any means but he was as cool in that moment as Cristiano Ronaldo was when he took the decisive spot-kick.

Buffon’s reaction has caused great debate. There are times when you lay into a referee and know you have overstepped the mark and I’m sure, in the future, Buffon will regret what happened. I know how he feels as I have some experience of red cards in the Bernabeu.

I am not defending Buffon but, at that moment, the emotions could not have been more highly charged.

I cannot begin to imagine how he felt when he knew that his lifelong dream of winning the Champions League was ripped from his grasp in such a controversial manner.