David De Gea

Exclusive: De Gea on his top five games

Saturday 08 August 2020 14:00

David De Gea was clocking up the milestones as the 2019/20 Premier League season finally came to a close last month.

After overtaking our former no.1 Peter Schmeichel to become our leading overseas appearance-maker in any position, during the 3-0 victory over Aston Villa, De Gea made it 400 games for the Reds in the 1-1 draw with Southampton. The Spaniard then claimed another Schmeichel record in our crucial 2-0 win at Leicester City, as he became the United keeper with the most clean sheets in the Premier League (113).

Before the league campaign finished, we sat down with David to look back on five of his most memorable matches from those 400-plus games for the club...

REAL MADRID 1 UNITED 1 (13 February 2013)

“It was a good open game with both sides playing well and creating chances. I think that we deserved to come away with much more out of that overall tie, and I’d felt that we were on the verge of good things in that Champions League campaign. But in spite of that, playing in the Bernabeu brings back good memories. It’s always good taking on Madrid and we grabbed a well-earned draw over there. I think the team and all the lads put in a good performance and the game provides some nice memories.”

Which are De Gea's top five matches for United? Video

Which are De Gea's top five matches for United?

Stop scrolling and watch as David talks us through the stand-out games from his 400-plus appearances for the club...

UNITED 2 EVERTON 1 (5 October 2014)

“It was a good game for me, personally, but most of all because the team won. I stopped a penalty from [Leighton] Baines, who’d never missed one up to that point. I was lucky enough to save it and at Old Trafford too, in front of all the fans. So that’s a great memory. It was a great all-round game, but the main thing is when you help the team to a win, it feels twice as good. We always try and study penalty-takers and watch videos of penalties they’ve taken. But in the end it’s still a bit of a lottery, and penalties are very difficult for the goalkeeper. If the taker hits it right then it’s a goal. I try and guess which side he’s going to shoot, but obviously saving a penalty is always difficult. Right at the end, a defender blocked a shot they had and then I managed to tip the ball over with my other hand. I remember the Stretford End celebrated it like a goal and all the stadium began to chant my name. It was amazing. It was a great day, the team won, and whenever we win that makes it a good day.”

UNITED 3 LIVERPOOL 0 (14 December 2014)

“It’s always a special game against Liverpool at Old Trafford and I had a very good all-round performance that game. The lads played really well too. It’s not an easy thing to beat Liverpool by three goals to nil. I also recall that the day before the game I fractured my finger. I played with a broken finger. In the final training session before the game a ball hit me on the finger and I fractured it. I was almost on the point of not being able to play the game and, honestly, I was in a lot of pain, but I was able to play with painkillers and stuff, and when you get out onto the pitch, you soon forget about any discomfort – it was certainly well worth it! Fortunately the game went really well for us and I was given Man of the Match too, so it’s a really great memory of a top game.”

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ARSENAL 1 UNITED 3 (2 December 2017)

“It’s always very hard to beat Arsenal on their own ground. Obviously we were under a lot of pressure at times in a difficult game for us. They had a lot of chances. In the first half, [Romelu] Lukaku was coming back facing his own goal and he almost scored in it! But I had time to get a hand to it and was able to prevent the goal. I had a decent game and made a lot of saves, and as I say, the main thing of all is that the team won the game, we picked up the three points and, again, this was also an entertaining game to look back on too.”

De Gea reacts to 400th appearance Video

De Gea reacts to 400th appearance

See what David had to say to us as he celebrated another career landmark...

TOTTENHAM 0 UNITED 1 (13 January 2019)

"We played this game at Wembley and it was a big win for us. We were pretty much in control in the first half and Rashford got the goal and we were playing well. It was a good move for the goal – we always work on stuff in training that we want to happen out on the pitch in a game and, of course, if it’s something you keep working on and practising, it will pay dividends. Tottenham had a lot of chances in the second half but we managed to hold out, and so we went away from Wembley with an important victory, which was really good.”

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