Jose Mourinho confident 'best in the world' David de Gea will sign new deal and stay at Manchester United

Jose Mourinho is confident David De Gea will end the uncertainty about his future by signing a new contract as the Manchester United manager lauded his goalkeeper for coming to his team’s rescue on Tuesday night.

As Mourinho admitted United have serious problems in front of goal and are finding it “very difficult” to score, the Portuguese has no such concerns about the capabilities of his goalkeeper, whom he hailed as the “best in the world”.

De Gea made an astonishing save from a deflected shot by substitute Ulisses Garcia to deny Young Boys the lead before Marouane Fellaini scored.

The Spaniard is out of contract at the end of next season and he has been stalling over a new deal but Mourinho believes he wants to stay at Old Trafford and will commit his long-term future.

“He’s a world-class player, he’s the best goalkeeper in the world and if our ambitions are to be a big club, to be a winning club, you need the best goalkeeper in the world and you need also some other players who are the best in the world,” Mourinho said.

“We have the best goalkeeper in the world and I know he wants to stay, I know his agent [Jorge Mendes, who is also Mourinho’s agent] is happy to do what the player wants and I also know the board want him to stay and they are working on that so hopefully sooner or later they reach a conclusion.

“In the end we scored but I have to reunite the goal we scored with David’s save. I think without David’s save, no winning goal. But in the end we qualify in a very difficult group with one match in hand, suffering a lot, but we did it."

Paul Scholes, the former United midfielder and a strident critic of Mourinho, had branded United’s performance as “awful” with “quality lacking in every area of the pitch”.

Mourinho refused to respond to Scholes’ specific criticism but once again had a message for the television pundits whom he sarcastically referred to as “my lovers” by trumpeting his own record in Europe.

“First of all let me send a message to my lovers and say I play Champions League 14 years and qualify [for the knockout stage] 14 times,” he said. “And the year where I didn't play CL I won the Europa League twice.

“So in 16 years, 14 times I qualify and two Europa Leagues, just a little curiosity for my lovers and lovers of the stats.

“Realistically, to be in the last 16 in this group is an achievement, not a big one, not a fantastic one, but it is an achievement. There are better teams than us, teams with more quality, with more realistic ambitions, but I always say when the team arrives in the quarter-final - not the last 16 - anything can happen.”