Real Madrid's Iker Casillas has hailed Juventus' Gianluigi Buffon as the standard-bearer for goalkeepers of their generation ahead of their Champions League semifinal clash.
The two sides meet on Tuesday in a rematch of their 2003 semifinal, and Casillas and Buffon are the only holdovers from that tie, won 4-3 by Juventus on aggregate.
And the Real Madrid man credited his Italian counterpart for setting the bar for goalkeeping.
"Gigi... what do you want me to say about Gigi?" Casillas asked. "He has been the benchmark for my generation and he will continue to be so for generations to come.
"For somebody like me who dreamt of being a goalkeeper, he represented a figure we could only hope of one day being able to be showcased with."
In the 2003 tie, current Juve director Pavel Nedved was on target in the second leg and Real's assistant coach Zinedine Zidane's last-minute goal proved futile for the Spanish club.
"When you get to my age, you do start to wonder if you might get another chance of winning," said Casillas, 33, who also waxed lyrical about the man he has to stop, Andrea Pirlo.
"The way Pirlo treats the ball is amazing to watch. He's a champion at everything. He's got such quality that he always excites all of the lovers of football who watch him," Casillas said.
Aside from Pirlo, Casillas will also have to stop Alvaro Morata, a man he says is the "future" of Spanish football.
"As well as the future, he's also the present," he said. "He's got everything -- right foot, left foot, pace, dribbling, his head. He's going to become the national team's first-choice No 9.
"It's certainly going to be an absorbing game between two sides with many stars and different styles of playing. It's going to be difficult for us, but we're going to try to leave Turin with a positive result."