Sir Alex Ferguson’s amazing gesture to David de Gea after penalty heartbreak
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Sir Alex Ferguson was seen commiserating David de Gea after the Manchester United goalkeeper saw his penalty saved in the Europa League final.
Villarreal eventually won the match on penalties following a relatively dull 120 minutes of action, which ended 1-1.
Both goalkeepers were needed to take penalties in the shootout with De Gea's effort saved by Geronimo Rulli as the La Liga side won 11-10.
De Gea was understandably distraught as United's wait for a major trophy continues, though he had a Red Devils legend there to commiserate him.
Ferguson brought the Spaniard to Old Trafford back in 2011 and was in Gdansk to watch the Europa League final.
And Fergie was spotted waiting for De Gea before embracing the goalkeeper and walking him down the tunnel, chatting continuously.
According to The Athletic: "Once the yellow confetti littered the grass and United’s players left, Sir Alex Ferguson provided De Gea some comfort.
"Ferguson waited for the player he signed as a 20-year-old, they embraced and then walked side-by-side down the tunnel."
De Gea started the game over Dean Henderson and was kept on for the shootout despite his poor penalty record.
The Spaniard has not saved a penalty for five years and has now conceded the last 40 he has faced.
Henderson has made a number of saves from 12 yards in recent years, including in the 2019 Under-21 European Championship and the 2018 League One Play-off final.
United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did consider a late change, though said: "You go through every scenario, of course, and it [De Gea's penalty record] had crossed my mind in the build-up to the game but we were confident in David and prepared.
"Anything can happen in a penalty shootout. I stuck with the keeper who played all of the game.
"I've got to say the penalty shootout was high quality, but we didn't do enough in the 120 minutes to score more goals and that's the disappointing bit.
"We had pressure, we had moments where we felt if we can just kick on a little bit now we can get a goal. But we just couldn't."
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- Sir Alex Ferguson
- Manchester United FC
- David de Gea
- Europa League
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