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| Saturday 21 June, 2008 |
| Blog: Best of the best |
| When Italy meet Spain in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008, Richard Godden believes we will witness a battle between the two best goalkeepers in the world |
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When Petr Cech dropped a seemingly harmless cross from Hamit Altintop on to the foot of Nihat Kahveci, he cost the Czech Republic a last-eight spot at Euro 2008 and blew his chance of being recognised as the world's best goalkeeper. That title is now being contested by two men - Italy's very own Superman, Gigi Buffon, and Spanish net-minder Iker Casillas.
As a reader of Football Italia, the chances are that you will already know plenty about the Juventus 'keeper. After making a stunning arrival on to the Serie A scene with Parma - keeping a clean sheet against Milan at the age of 17 - he hasn't looked back and was one of the protagonists of Italy's World Cup triumph in 2006. As well as being the most expensive custodian of all-time after he cost the Bianconeri £32m in 2001, the 30-year-old was also recently voted the joint-best 'keeper of the last 20 years by the IFFHS. And few would argue with that.
But Casillas can now be considered a realistic contender to Gigi's throne. His form in Real Madrid's last two title-winning campaigns has been nothing short of amazing and you would be hard pressed to find a regular viewer of Los Blancos who doesn't believe he is their most important player. Time and time again he bailed out the Bernabeu outfit with superb saves which left you wondering quite how he did it.
Having played in front of Buffon for a number of years with Italy, Parma and Juventus, while Casillas is currently his Real Madrid colleague, Fabio Cannavaro is one man who knows plenty about the two goalkeepers. “Casillas is formidable, but Buffon is the best goalkeeper in the world,” insisted the Azzurri's injured skipper ahead of Sunday night's game. Spain boss Luis Aragones, of course, doesn't agree. “There is a debate about this game having the two best 'keepers in the world but I'd say, speaking entirely personally, that Iker is No 1.”
So far in this tournament, Buffon has proved to have the safer hands of the pair. Although he shipped three against Holland, only a couple of wonderful saves kept the scoreline respectable. Then there was the penalty stop from Adrian Mutu against Romania and a save from Karim Benzema in the France game which prevented Les Bleus from getting back into things. Casillas, on the other hand, was a virtual spectator against Russia until Roman Pavlyuchenko's unstoppable header. But he certainly should have done better to keep out Zlatan Ibrahimovic's Swedish equaliser before being rested for the dead rubber against Greece.
For my money, the Spanish No 1 still has some work to do before he can dethrone the king of the 'keepers - starting by outperforming Buffon in Vienna on Sunday night. Whoever wins that battle will probably have a Euro 2008 semi-final to look forward to as well…
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Gigi Buffon has been the best goalkeeper in the world for the last 5 years, it's not even up for debate.
Bruno |
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