Messi breaks Buffon duck

Lionel Messi was finally was able to score past legendary Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon in a 3-0 win at the Camp Nou.

The game was heading to half time 0-0 when Messi created space on the edge of the area. Picking up a pass from new signing Ousmane Dembele, Messi took on defenders and played a sharp one-two with Luis Suarez before unleashing a drive through the legs of Mehdi Benatia to slot it into the bottom corner of the net.

Scoring past the 39-year old Buffon is a first for Messi in his illustrious career where he has now scored 96 goals in the Champions League.

He failed to score past Buffon on three occasions before last night but for Leo Messi it was just an anomaly. Messi did not take long to get his second.

Iniesta, who has been brilliant all game, sliced open the Juve midfield before finding Messi near the area. Messi went around two defenders in the 69th minute and his clever body angle deceived the experienced Buffon, who dived to the wrong side. Messi coolly slotted in to the right hand side of the post, again at the bottom corner and Buffon had no chance.

The great keeper had earlier thwarted another effort from the legendary Argentine when the ball crashed to the post and went off play after rebounding against Buffon’s back.

Messi did not score against Buffon in the Champions League final in 2015 where Barcelona won the title courtesy of a 3-1 win. The Argentine also did not score in last year’s quarterfinal meetings where Juve won by a 3-0 aggregate score.