'He's nowhere near the world's best right now': Twitter reacts to De Gea's howler against Barcelona

Tweeters piled in after Manchester United stopper David De Gea suffered a horrible blunder while conceding Lionel Messi's second goal in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final clash against Barcelona.

The usually-reliable Spanish goalkeeper inexplicably allowed a weakly-hit Messi shot from outside the penalty area to bobble under his body as Barcelona cruised into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes.

De Gea's howler looked to have killed off any faint hopes of a United comeback after what was a bright start from the Premier League club at Camp Nou. 

© Reuters / Carl Recine

De Gea's mistake is not his first high-profile blunder this season, as journalist Mark Ogden commented on Twitter.

"If that De Gea mistake was a one-off, then it could be dismissed as just that. But it's not even his first this month. May have been the world's best, but he's nowhere near that right now."

That assertion was backed up by football stats account @OptaJoe, which pointed out: "David de Gea has made three errors leading to opposition goals in all competitions this season - the only Premier League goalkeepers to have made more across all competitions in 2018-19 at club level are Asmir Begovic (5) and Jordan Pickford (4). Agonising."

One fan mocked De Gea's meek effort at stopping Messi's weak shot, tweeting: "David De Gea now auditions for the Christmas goalkeeping bloopers DVD."

And a Liverpool fan (unsurprisingly) mocked the assertion of some United fans that De Gea is a better goalkeeper than the Reds' Brazilian stopper Alisson Becker.

One went even further, suggesting that United's Spanish stopper was "actually finished," with another fan going somewhat over the top by suggesting United should leave De Gea in Spain when they head back home to Manchester.

Messi's strike was his second of the night, with De Gea helpless to stop the Argentinian wizard's first effort, which was curled beautifully past the United keeper.

But the brilliance of Messi's first goal was almost forgotten by some fans - and some media outlets - online, who preferred to focus on De Gea's blunder instead.