Spain's David de Gea must bounce back from his mistake against Portugal, according to former Manchester United goalkeeper Mark Bosnich.
De Gea was at fault for Cristiano Ronaldo's second goal during Friday's thrilling 3-3 draw between the Group B rivals, allowing a relatively tame left-footed effort to squirm from his grasp and into the net.
La Roja take on Iran - the early group leader after an opening 1-0 win over Morocco - in Kazan on Wednesday and can ill-afford any more errors from the usually reliable United number one.
In his pre-match media conference on Tuesday, Spain boss Fernando Hierro insisted his squad had "no doubts" over De Gea's state of mind and Bosnich, who enjoyed two spells at Old Trafford, says criticism of the Spaniard is to be expected due to the high standards he has set.
"Rightly so. Look, David de Gea is an excellent goalkeeper, he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, but the other night he made a mistake that was a horrible mistake," Bosnich told Omnisport and Goal.
"That's a goalkeeper's nightmare. He rightly got criticism and he has got to come back from it now.
"Of course he is world class. That's why the spotlight goes more on world-class players and especially goalkeepers. When you do make a mistake, people don't expect that.
"When it is a goalkeeper that no one has heard of before and he makes a mistake then they pretty much brush over it.
"When it is someone like David de Gea, when it is someone like Manuel Neuer or Thibaut Courtois, when they make mistakes people are going to turn around and say hang on a minute? What's going on? It is only human nature."
Comments
SHARE