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Everybody Is Loving What Lukaku Did To Benfica's Rookie Goalkeeper After The Game

Everybody Is Loving What Lukaku Did To Benfica's Rookie Goalkeeper After The Game

Mile Svilar made a big error on his big night.

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

Mile Svilar's Champions League debut did not go to plan tonight.

Aged 18 years and 52 days, the rookie goalkeeper was thrown right in the deep end by Benfica boss Rui Vitoria and became the youngest ever goalkeeper to start a Champions League game, beating the record previously set by the great Iker Casillas when he started for Real Madrid against Olympiakos aged 18 and 117 days in 1999.

But he endured a tough evening and gifted Manchester United's winner when he carried Marcus Rashford's free-kick over the line after catching the ball, producing the sort of error you would expect from an inexperienced shotstopper.

The Belgium Under 9 international was quite visibly furious with himself over the mistake he made and so to see his compatriot Romelu Lukaku, who like Svilar, came through the ranks at Anderlecht before moving on to further his career, consoling him at the final whistle.


Fellow goalkeeper David De Gea, who no doubt made errors earlier in his career before growing to be the phenomenon he is today, also shared a moment with Svilar.

But it was Lukaku who spent a considerable amount of time embracing the young lad and encouraging him.

Image: PA

And he got a lot of love from Twitter for what he did:

A class act.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Manchester United, Romelu Lukaku, Champions League, Benfica