By the time that Sterling went through one-on-one following the aforementioned Evans backpass, there was a sense that De Gea had already won the psychological battle with the Liverpool forward. “He’s starting to become a great goalkeeper,” said Neville on commentary. “Great goalkeepers control one-on-ones.”
Some mighty hyperbole in that article, but they chose a good example here. The thing with De Gea is that he made a point of staying on his feet when Sterling got through in the 50th minute. The best ones always do. Buffon has made a career out of robbing strikers in those type of situations. No doubt in my mind that Szczesny would have gotten sent off instead, because his only instinct is to sweep the ball. He would have clobbered Sterling and gotten a red card.
