It’s taken David De Gea three long years of repeatedly saving Manchester United’s bacon to finally be trusted as the Spanish number one.
Now that he’s finally overhauled an ageing Iker Casillas, he might want to make sure stuff like this doesn’t happen any more.
After his first couple of Euro 2016 outings were largely uneventful, many might have expected De Gea to have more of a test between the Spanish sticks in their final group match against Croatia.
With Alvaro Morata putting Spain ahead at the other end, a ball was played back to De Gea inside his own area. Receiving the ball on the penalty spot, De Gea dawdled and was swiftly closed down by the Croatian forward.
The loose ball fell at the feet of Ivan Rakitic who lofted the ball over him. Incredibly, it hit the bar, then post before narrowly missing Gerard Pique on the goal line.
CLOSE!! Superb Rakitic chip almost levels the score #CROESP still 0-1 https://t.co/JXSG0zXRVQ
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 21, 2016
He genuinely couldn’t have done that if he’d wanted to.
Wake up, Dave.
