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Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has explained his decision to stick with David De Gea in goal for the penalty shoot-out against Villarreal in the Europa League final on Wednesday. The Norwegian said he had full faith in De Gea and wanted to go ahead with the goalkeeper who had played the full game.
Manchester United were unable to win the game in extra time despite scoring the equalizer in the second half.
The penalty shoot-out was a close contest as both teams dispatched their first ten penalties, and it went to the goalkeepers in the sixth round of sudden death.
While Geronimo Rulli dispatched his penalty against David De Gea, the Spaniard couldn’t do the same as Manchester United watched Villarreal lift their first-ever Europa League title.
Solskjaer doesn't regret choosing De Gea over Dean Henderson in the Manchester United goal
After the game, the inquests were primarily focussed on David De Gea’s poor penalty record as the Spaniard failed to save any out of the 11 penalties Villarreal took.
De Gea hadn’t saved a penalty since April 2016, and that poor run continued on Wednesday in Gdansk.
Solskjaer had the chance to substitute Dean Henderson in extra time for the shoot-out, but sent on Alex Telles and Juan Mata as his last two substitutes.
Asked after the game if he considered Henderson for the shoot-out because of De Gea’s record, Solskjaer said he was confident of De Gea in goal.
"You go through every scenario, of course," Solskjaer explained. "And it 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."
With the defeat, Manchester United’s titleless run extended to four years as their last trophy came under Jose Mourinho in 2017.
