Serie A's VAR Era Begins: Juventus vs Cagliari Highlights

August 19, 2017. The day Serie A stepped into the VAR age — and, of course, it was Juventus who had to cut the ribbon.

The stage was the 2017/18 curtain-raiser at the Allianz Stadium against Cagliari. The champions were already in front, Mario Mandžukić having done what Mario Mandžukić so often did: attack the box, attack the ball, and stick Juve 1–0 up.

Then, in the 37th minute, came a moment that looked utterly ordinary. No drama, no great roar. Just a tangle in the area, away from the ball. Alex Sandro arrived a fraction late on Duje Čop inside the box. Referee Fabio Maresca saw it, weighed it up, and waved play on.

For a second, that felt like the end of it.

It wasn’t.

A crackle in Maresca’s earpiece changed everything. He slowed, then broke into that now-familiar VAR jog towards the touchline, where a brand-new pitchside monitor waited — a symbol of a new era bolted onto the old rituals of Italian football. Ninety-seven seconds ticked by as the stadium buzzed and the players milled around, half-curious, half-impatient.

Maresca turned back, blew his whistle, and pointed to the spot.

History. The first VAR-awarded penalty in Serie A. The technology had done exactly what it was brought in to do: catch what the referee had missed, correct it, and, in this case, punish Juventus in real time. A landmark decision, a statement that even Italy’s serial champions would now live under the cold, unforgiving eye of the cameras.

Only the story didn’t belong to VAR for long.

Diego Farias placed the ball, took his run-up, and struck what could have been a defining kick. Facing him was Gianluigi Buffon, 39 years old, in his 23rd professional season, still commanding his penalty area like it was his private property.

Buffon guessed right. He didn’t need a spectacular leap or a fingertip miracle. He simply read it, moved, and palmed the ball away with the kind of nonchalance that made the “historic” penalty feel instantly forgettable. The Allianz roared, Juve’s lead stayed intact, and the VAR revolution had its first dose of old-school resistance.

From there, the champions did what they usually did in those years. They tightened their grip. Paulo Dybala found the net, Gonzalo Higuaín added his name to the scoresheet, and the night drifted towards a familiar conclusion: a 3–0 home win, routine on paper, ruthless in execution.

The grand unveiling of VAR, the 97-second delay, the first corrected decision, the first penalty awarded by the system — all of it ended up as background noise to a standard Juventus victory and another Buffon moment.

That’s why this episode lingers as one of football’s better pieces of trivia. Italian football rolled out its shiny new technology, installed to catch every nudge and tug, to finally pin down every marginal call, and the very first time it landed a blow on Juventus, a 39-year-old goalkeeper calmly stepped up and made the whole thing feel irrelevant.