At the 2024-2025 Champions League group stage draw on the morning of August 30, football icons Cristiano Ronaldo and Gianluigi Buffon shared a memorable moment. During the event, Ronaldo took the opportunity to playfully apologize to the legendary Italian goalkeeper for his iconic bicycle kick goal scored against Buffon in 2018.
As they took part in the draw, Buffon was responsible for drawing the teams, while Ronaldo activated the UEFA computer to reveal the opponents for each team in the group stage. This season, the Champions League adopts a new format where each team will face eight different clubs in single matches, replacing the previous two-legged format of playing against three other teams.
Ronaldo and Buffon at the 2024 – 2025 Champions League group stage draw. PHOTO: UEFA
Ronaldo and Buffon previously played together at Juventus, winning the Serie A and Coppa Italia double together in 2020. Before teaming up, they had faced each other on the pitch many times, most notably during Ronaldo’s time at Real Madrid and Buffon’s time at Juventus.
In the quarter-finals of the 2018 Champions League, the first leg was held in Turin (Italy), with a 3-0 victory for Real Madrid, including a wonderful goal by Ronaldo. In that goal, Dani Carvajal crossed the ball, Ronaldo jumped into the air to perform a beautiful “bicycle kick” that left Buffon standing and watching the ball go into the net. The entire stadium stood up and applauded Ronaldo’s classic goal, including the home team Juventus fans. Now, Ronaldo has jokingly apologized to Buffon for that historic goal.
During the 2024-2024 Champions League group stage draw, UEFA presenter Pedro Pinto commented on Ronaldo’s scoring record against the Italian goalkeeper. Buffon replied: “Every game.”
Ronaldo’s stunning bicycle kick . PHOTO: REAL MADRID
Another presenter, Reshmin Chowdhury, then recalled Ronaldo’s bicycle kick against Buffon. Ronaldo apologised to Buffon in Italian: “Scusa Gigi, Scusa”. Buffon later revealed: “Ronaldo had already apologised to me after the last match between Real Madrid and Juventus.”
Ronaldo concluded: “Respect.” Real Madrid overcame a difficult Juventus defeat after losing 3-1 in the second leg, before winning the Champions League that year after beating Liverpool in the final. Meanwhile, Buffon has yet to win a Champions League title in his legendary career.
Gigi Buffon previously shared the story behind Ronaldo’s amazing goal. Back in 2019, Italian football legend Buffon revealed that he shared a joke with Ronaldo right after conceding.
Ronaldo apologized to Buffon because he… scored against the Italian goalkeeper. PHOTO: UEFA
“After about the usual 25 seconds of frustration over the goal, I thought about what Ronaldo did to me, which was really amazing,” Buffon said. “I asked him, “Cristiano Ronaldo, how old are you?” and he said to me, “Not bad for a 33-year-old, right?”.
In the end, we both laughed. At the end of my career, I had the chance to play in the same team as Cristiano Ronaldo and that was a plus. It’s hard to improve if you don’t play with the best and I want to add Ronaldo to the list of great champions I’ve played with.”
