Date published: Thursday 18th April 2019 6:41
Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea was reportedly ‘inconsolable’ and offered an apology to his team-mates after making an error against Barcelona in their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday night.
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg and already a goal behind to Lionel Messi’s brilliant opener, De Gea let a weak shot from the Argentinian sneak under his body and trickle into the net to put them 3-0 ahead on aggregate and as good as kill off their hopes.
Philippe Coutinho’s fine strike only served to add to their misery as the tie ended 4-0 on aggregate.
While De Gea partially redeemed himself to keep out Sergei Roberto later in the half, the Spaniard knew his error had let United down and it’s claimed he was ‘inconsolable’ in the dressing room at half-time.
According to The Sun, De Gea was furious with himself for the costly error and apologised to the rest of the team in the dressing room both at half-time and again after the game.
The paper says De Gea even felt his side could still have gone on to win the game prior to his blunder and is said to have taken his gaffe extremely badly.
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who has now lost three of their five games since he was confirmed as their permanent boss, was understandably reticent to criticise a goalkeeper who has so often come to United’s aid in recent years.
Solskjaer said: “That’s unfortunate with goalkeepers. When you make an error, it can get highlighted and that’ll be remembered.
“But he made some fantastic saves as well and all in all his contribution to the team is good, but sometimes that happens in football.
“The quality of their finishing was absolutely outstanding. We started well in the first 15 minutes, we felt ‘we’ve got something here’ and then in four minutes they scored two goals.
“The attitude was right, we were fighting against a good team and good players out there.”
