Stopwatches at the ready. Should Sassuolo reach the middle of the second half in their Serie A match against the league-leaders Friday evening without having scored a goal, then the penultimate hurdle will be in sight. If 67 minutes have passed, then Gigi Buffon will have superseded one legendary compatriot, Dino Zoff.
Zoff, the goalkeeper who captained Italy to triumph in the 1982 World Cup, went 903 minutes without conceding while playing for Juventus 43 seasons back. He will be happy to see his landmark passed, more so if the club where he won most of his decorations, maintain their position at the top of the table for the next 10 games after that.
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Juventus, after a ragged start to the season, are now favourites for a fifth successive scudetto. "I am sure he'll beat the record," said Zoff, spying an omen, "and remember when I set that mark, Juve went on to take the title."
So did AC Milan in the 1993/94 season, when Sebastiano Rossi, their towering gloveman, broke Zoff’s mark and went 903 minutes without conceding a goal in what was at that time the strongest domestic league in Europe.
Stopwatches at the ready: if the fourth official on Friday at the Juventus Stadium holds up his additional time boards towards the end of each half, and the sum of the extra minutes is greater than three, and Sassuolo have drawn a blank at the end, Buffon will have broken Rossi’s all-time record for invincibility between the posts in the Italian league.
The Juve custodian is already the record-holder for the era in which a win gained three points. And Buffon, clean sheets apart, has already assumed a large share of the ownership of a remarkable four-month period in which Juve have resurrected a tilt at the title that, in late October, against the same Sassuolo, appeared broken. That night, Nicola Sansone’s direct free kick arrowed past Buffon, the only goal of the game. Juve were left 12th in the table; they had accumulated just 12 points from their first 10 games.
In the aftermath of the loss at Sassuolo, who were only promoted to the top flight in 2014 but have notched up a few notable scalps since, Buffon made his voice heard in the dressing-room. “The veterans spoke up very honestly at the point,” Simone Zaza, the Juve striker told Italian broadcasters. “And I think that, subconsciously, made it a turning point for our season.”
The challenge was several-fold. To restore the tough, defiant Juve of tradition and recent history. To win a league title from an unprecedented deficit. No team has even won the scudetto from so far back 10 games into the campaign.
In the 18 matches since the setback at Sassuolo, Juventus have gained more points than even La Liga's soaraway leaders Barcelona, who are 36 matches unbeaten in all competitions, in the same period. They have scored more points from their past 18 league fixtures than Bayern Munich, who head by a distance the Bundesliga, or Paris Saint Germain, who lead Ligue 1 by hectares.
Patently, Buffon has found himself back on the same reassuring wavelength with his trusted, gnarled defenders, Leo Bonucci, Andrea Barzagli, Patrice Evra and Stephan Lichtsteiner. They should get even tighter at the back. The chief warrior, Giorgio Chiellini, is ready to return from injury.
Buffon turned 38 at the end of January, when he was 206 minutes into this unbeaten run – Antonio Cassano, of Sampdoria, was the last man to score against him in Serie A, more than two months back – and, in Zoff's view, remains close to the peak of his powers. "He is definitely still among the best goalkeepers in the world," said Zoff. "He should have been on the list for the Ballon d'Or. He's not a kid any more but he can go on for while yet."
Zoff retired at 41. That may well be another milestone Buffon eclipses.
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