Daniele De Rossi has defended Gianluigi Buffon following his mistake in Italy’s 1-1 draw with Spain on Thursday.
The veteran goalkeeper completely missed an interception to allow Vitolo to give the visitors the lead early in the second half in Turin, though De Rossi equalised from the penalty spot after Sergio Ramos fouled Eder.
De Rossi insists that Buffon remains the best in history in his position, though he felt a tinge of regret that he has kept any such blunders for Juventus to a minimum.
“The best goalkeeper in history can make mistakes, too – otherwise, he’d be a machine,” the Roma midfielder told Rai Sport.
“I would have preferred him to make a mistake for Juventus rather than Italy, but you can’t have everything!”
De Rossi felt Italy deserved a point for the way in which they improved their performance after a tame opening hour in which they failed to register a shot.
“It was tough, especially in the first half,” he said. “Spain always control the ball, but in the first half we were too deep and allowed them too much possession. We were too weak in the tackle and then we kept giving them back the ball.
“The first half was bad, but the second was much better – the comeback is in our DNA. The draw isn’t the best result, but I think the group that did well in Euro 2016 is still going strong.
“When you concede, the attitude has to change. Before the goal we were too timid and we didn’t push hard enough.
“Many teams in our position would have lost, but we drew, and we risked looking for a winner at the end. We got that intensity back.”
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