Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Beppe Marotta: Gianluigi Buffon not to blame for Italy draw vs. Croatia

Gianluigi Buffon should not be chastised for his mistake which cost Italy the lead against Croatia in Sunday night's Euro 2016 qualifier, according to his Juventus' general manager Beppe Marotta.

Buffon let Ivan Perisic's shot squirm under his body as Croatia cancelled out Antonio Candreva's opening goal within five minutes at the San Siro in Milan.

It was a clear goalkeeping error which could have cost the Azzurri precious qualifying points, but Marotta says it is wrong to point the finger at the 36-year-old.

"Buffon's a great goalkeeper," Marotta said in Milan, where he was taking part in a function organised by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"But nobody's perfect, and it's inconceivable that he can be criticised for that. He did pretty well in defending the Italy goal."

Croatia had several chances to win the contest in Milan with Italy forced to defend for most of the game, and Marotta says the fact the hosts struggled to take a point is further evidence of the problems facing Italian football.

"We need to be self-critical and try to realise how football is at the core of the business we work in," he added. "We need to sit down and work out a strategy to raise the profile of our game again, like it was in the times of [Francesco] Totti and [Alessandro] Del Piero."

UEFA opened disciplinary proceedings against Italy and Croatia on Tuesday following the clash at the weekend.

Charges of racist behaviour, crowd disturbances and the setting-off of fireworks and throwing of missiles have been levelled against the Croatian Football Federation, while Italy have been charged as a result of setting off fireworks.

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