Serie A 2019-20: Gianluigi Buffon celebrates record 903rd appearance with a clean sheet as Juventus defeat SPAL 2-0
In his record 903rd competitive appearance at club football level - the most by an Italian player - Italy's legendary 2006 World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon kept his record-extending 296th Serie A clean sheet (229th for Juventus). In the process, the eight-time defending champions beat SPAL 2-0 at home to briefly go to the top of the Serie A table.
Internazionale later defeated Sampdoria 3-1 to regain the top spot with six wins out of six matches.
The previous record for most appearances in club football by an Italian player belonged to AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini, who played 902 games in all competitions for AC Milan from 1984-85 to 2008-09.
In his 511th Serie A appearance for Juventus, and second of the season, Buffon had little to do for large swathes of the game as SPAL rarely threatened the Bianconeri goal.
SPAL's Albanian keeper Etrit Berisha was in inspired form though as he repelled wave after wave of Juventus' attacks and kept his team in the game, before inspirational midfielder Miralem Pjanic scored a fine long ranger to break the deadlock at the cusp of halftime. Pjanic had scored the winner against Brescia in mid-week too.
Aaron Ramsey's goal-bound effort from point-blank range was brilliantly kept out by a diving Berisha in one of the saves of the Serie A season. Cristiano Ronaldo was also thwarted on multiple occasions by the Albanian keeper.
But just when it looked like Ronaldo would return empty-handed from a fine day's effort, the Portugal captain's header 17 minutes from time doubled Juventus' lead and ended the game as a contest.
Berisha was not done for the day, as he pulled off a good diving save in the final minute of injury time to deny Ronaldo a brace. But it was all too little too late for SPAL as Juventus wrapped up their fifth win of the season in six games to go top of Serie A for the first time this term, before Inter knocked them off their perch.