Aston Villa’s Emery: Ming’s handball ‘biggest mistake’ I’ve ever seen

Aston Villa’s winning run in the Champions League ended after a bizarre penalty incident on Wednesday, which manager Unai Emery described as the “biggest mistake” he has ever seen in his career.

The mental lapse of the defender Tyrone Mingswho conceded a spot kick by picking up the ball with his hand after a short goal kick by the goalkeeper Emiliano Martinezgave Club Brugge a 1-0 win.

Villa had won their first three matches without conceding a single goal in the club’s first appearance in the elite competition since they were defending champions 41 years ago.

“His mistake is completely strange. It’s the biggest mistake I’ve witnessed in my career,” Emery said. “It’s only happened once in my entire life. Today.”

A similar incident already happened in the Champions League last season – but no penalty was awarded that time.

In the quarter-finals, Arsenal defender Gabriel went unpunished to collect a short pass from the goalkeeper David Raya in the first match against Bayern Munich.

Bayern’s then-coach Thomas Tuchel later criticized the referee, who had said he would not award a penalty for a “childish error”.

One difference in the Villa incident was that the ball went forward out of the six-yard box, with Martínez appearing to have deliberately restarted play early in the second half.

Mings apparently thought the ball was not yet in play. He stepped forward to pick it up with his left hand and returned it to place it at the corner of the six-yard box.

Bruges captain Hans Vanaken converted the penalty in the 52nd minute to give Bruges a 1-0 lead, placing the ball to the left of Martínez as the World Cup-winning Argentina goalkeeper dived to his right.

Martínez tried to persuade German referee Tobias Stieler after the match that he had made a mistake.

VIlla defends Ezri Konsa suggested that the referee compounded his mistakes because Mings had previously received a yellow card in the first half.

“If it’s a handball, deliberate, then (Mings) should get a second yellow, he’s already on a yellow, so why not send him off for that? It killed the game,” Konsa told British broadcaster TNT in a post match. interview.

Villa had been surprise leaders in the 36-team standings and provisionally dropped to fifth before hosting Juventus in three weeks’ time.

Brugge has six points after two wins and two defeats and was in 20th place. After all eight rounds in January, it would earn a spot in the knockout playoffs.

Information from the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.