‘Biggest mistake in my career’ – Unai Emery left baffled by bizarre Tyrone Mings penalty incident in Champions League defeat

Tyrone Mings had a moment to forget in his Champions League debut after a major brain fade inside the Aston Villa box.

Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez took a goal-kick early in the second half and passed it to defender Mings.

However, Mings, who presumably had not heard referee Tobias Stieler’s whistle, picked the ball up before placing it down on the turf and passing back to Martinez.

Unfortunately for Mings, Stieler had indeed blown his whistle for the goal-kick and blew it again seconds later to signal a penalty, sparking confused reactions from the entire Villa team.

Despite the protests, Stieler remained unmoved as Club Brugge’s Hans Vanaken stepped up and slotted the ball down the middle to hand the Belgian side a surprise 1-0 lead in the 52nd minute.

Speaking after the contest, Villa manager Unai Emery was left at a total loss to explain Mings’ ‘very, very strange’ error.

“It’s completely strange,” Emery said.

“It is the biggest mistake we’ve made in my career as a coach. If we make a mistake in our build-up, I can accept it. In the first half, we did it fantastic.”

Mings, who was cautioned in the first half and was perhaps a little fortunate to avoid a second yellow for the handball, was taken off just 14 minutes later for Pau Torres.

Unfortunately for Mings, the penalty also meant he became the first Englishman to concede a penalty on his Champions League debut.

Vanaken’s goal ultimately proved to be the difference between the two as Villa suffered their first loss in the Champions League.

Mings, an 18-cap England international, will have felt aggrieved his calamitous error was picked up by the referee given Arsenal defender Gabriel got away with the exact same offence last season.

Gabriel picked up a pass from David Raya during the Gunners’ Champions League tie against Bayern Munich in April.

However, the Brazilian defender claimed he was innocent as he believed the ball wasn’t in play despite the referee blowing his whistle to restart play.

Bayern led the contest 2-1 at the time but fortunately for the Gunners they recovered to secure a 2-2 draw thanks to Leandro Trossard.

Former Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel vented his fury after the match and was left annoyed the referee saw the incident but did not punish Gabriel.

“I think the referee did not have the courage today to give a deserved penalty in a bit of a crazy and awkward situation,” Tuchel told TNT Sports.

“But he admitted on the pitch that he saw the situation, but the quarter-final is not enough for him to give a penalty for a kid’s mistake.

“So he admitted that he knows about the mistake the player made, that is a bit frustrating.”

Tuchel added: “What makes us really angry is the explanation on the pitch. He told our players it was a ‘kid’s mistake’ and he won’t give a penalty for that in a Champions League quarter-final.

“It’s a horrible, horrible explanation. Kid’s mistake, adult’s mistake, whatever – we feel angry because it was a huge decision against us.”

Meanwhile, Villa have now slipped to eighth in the Champions League table following their first European defeat of the season.

They next host Juventus on Wednesday, November 27.

Emery added: “We learned last year that to play away in Europe is always difficult.

“Playing against a team like Brugge in the Champions League, we can be favourite for eight matches in the table but for one match, playing here against them, we were not favourites.

“They showed us their capacity to beat us and they did it.”