Torres says De Gea’s penalty miss will not affect his Euro campaign

Villareal defender Pau Torres has said that his national teammate David de Gea will not be affected by his penalty miss in the Europa League final when Spain gives their best shot to win the nation’s 4th European cup.

The Spanish teammates were against each other in last week’s Europa League final. Manchester United’s squad looked much better on paper and started the game as favourites. The match went on to penalties and a very long penalty shoot-out came to an end as David de Gea missed his penalty after failing to save any of Villareal’s 11 efforts in the shootout.

While many fans and experts believe that may have been de Gea’s last kick in a Manchester United shirt, Pau Torres wants the goalkeeper to leave the match behind and focus on the task at hand.

“He has a strong mind, I spoke with him after the game and this won’t affect him,” said Torres of Dea Gea in a news conference on Wednesday from Spain’s Las Rozas training base, where they are preparing for the European Championship.

“It will stay in the past, I tried to encourage him as best as I could and told him to not to worry about it because this summer, he is going to lift a different trophy.”

David de Gea is no longer a nailed-on starter for Spain as his form has been questionable since the 2018 World Cup. He hasn’t started for La Roja since last October and will be competing with Bilbao’s Unai Simon for the spot between the sticks.

Pau Torres, whose future at Villareal is also uncertain, is linked with a move to Manchester United who are looking to strengthen their backline by finding a more mobile partner for the physically gifted Harry Maguire who isn’t the quickest.

“We have a squad of veterans and youngsters and we all have to try and be leaders, we’re all capable of doing that,” he said.
“We’re candidates to win the European Championship and we’re ready to do that.”