Neville hints De Gea should be playing instead of Unai Simon after Japan blunder

Gary Neville claims that David de Gea would not have conceded Japan's first goal against Spain, which was brought about by a mistake from first-choice goalkeeper Unai Simon.

Luis Enrique's side edged through Group E in second place after suffering a 2-1 defeat by Japan on Thursday and will now play Morocco in the round of 16.

After a dominant first half from Spain, Japan bounced back with two goals in three minutes, inspired by Ritsu Doan's speculative equaliser from distance in the 48th minute.

Simon, who looked to have misjudged the flight of the ball, struggled to deal with the long shot as it was fired towards him and palmed the effort into the net as a result.

During his post-match analysis, ITV pundit Neville slammed the goalkeeper's poor performance and questioned whether he should continue as Enrique's No 1 for the remainder of the tournament.

'The big decision for the game is whether [Spain] stick with the goalkeeper,' the former Manchester United defender said.

'[Simon] is the one part of their game that looks like a real weak point and I have to say it starts off badly. We know they like to play out the back, we know they like to take chances and we want them to continue to do that, we're not trying to change that.

'He's got to save that (first goal). They've got Raya on the bench and they've got Sanchez.'

Neville then insisted that Red Devils No 1 De Gea, who was left out of Enrique's World Cup squad despite chalking up 45 international appearances for Spain, would have dealt with Doan's strike from distance comfortably.

'They've got De Gea still at home,' he said. 'I know he's not been brilliant these last few years, but I can't think he'd let that one in! That's a real bad one. In a knock-out game that's fatal for you.'