JUVENTUS FACED THE very first penalty awarded by video assistant referee (VAR) in Serie A earlier tonight but Gianluigi Buffon was equal to it.

It was a crucial stop too as Cagliari’s Diego Farias had the chance to level affairs after Mario Mandzukic opened the scoring for the reigning champions on 12 minutes.

But, shortly before the break, referee Fabio Maresca utilised VAR to spot a foul from Alex Sandro in the area.

However, Farias put his effort far too close to Buffon and the 39-year-old, who was making an astounding 620th league appearance – effortlessly shifted to his right to parry the kick.

Gigi #Buffon with a massive save on #Farias. #JuveCagliaripic.twitter.com/HSnc9TQI3i

— Lega Serie A (@SerieAchannel) August 19, 2017

And within a few minutes, Cagliari were really made rue the miss as Paolo Dybala doubled Juve’s lead on the stroke of the interval.

Midway through the second period, Gonzalo Higuain scored a third and it was all too easy for the Old Lady.

New signing Blaise Matuidi featured too, coming on for Higuain to play the final 20 minutes.

Juventus are aiming to be crowned league champions for the seventh straight time this season.

Subscribe to The42 podcasts here:

Lyon’s Nabil Fekir has scored the best goal you’ll see all day – with his weaker foot

Crisis? What crisis? A pair of debutants score as Bayern breeze past Leverkusen in opener