Buffon still haunted by late Rash penalty

ITALIAN hero Gianluigi Buffon is still haunted by Paris SaintGermain’s defeat against United in the Champions League last year and believes complacency cost the French side the game.

United’s chances of progressing to the next round seemed slim following a 2-0 home defeat but a memorable turnaround at the Parc des Princes saw the Reds prevail against the odds.

Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side and doubled his tally before half-time. PSG hit back through Juan Bernat before Marcus Rashford kept his cool from the penalty spot in the last minute to send PSG out of the competition.

Buffon was the man in between the sticks for the French champions on that occasion and is still haunted by the manner of PSG’s collapse.

The now Juventus goalkeeper blamed complacency in the squad for their collapse.

“It’s a game that I think about at least three or four times a week,” he told L’Equipe. “It wakes me up, a lot of regrets. I was sure that this season we would have reached the final, of that I was sure.

“In Manchester we won a huge game [2-0 with goals from Kimpembe and Mbappe] with a great show of force. Unfortunately I blame myself for an incredible mistake.

“A mistake that, with the experience I had, I should not have made.

“We thought it was a formality and I got carried away. It was as if that match was of little value because we had already won 2-0 in the first leg” Buffon added:

“Mentally, that night, as the match approached, in concentration, I was not the usual ‘Gigi’.

“I did not have the strength or the energy to perceive that we were preparing this match too lightly.

“And maybe so as not to be the old man who gets everyone drunk, I didn’t say: ‘Oh guys, we’re not there, we don’t have the right mentality’. Me too, I let myself be taken.

“At Juventus, that would not have happened.

“I was sure that this season we would have reached the final, I was convinced of it.”