Aston Villa‘s winning run in the Champions League ended after a bizarre penalty incident Wednesday that coach Unai Emery described as the “biggest mistake” he’s ever seen in his career.
The mental lapse by defender Tyrone Mings, who conceded a spot kick by picking up the ball with his hand after a short goal kick by goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, gifted Club Brugge a 1-0 win.
Villa had won their first three games without conceding a single goal in the club’s first appearance in the elite competition since they were the defending champions 41 years ago.
“His mistake is completely strange. It’s the biggest mistake I witnessed in my career,” Emery said. “It has only happened one time in all my life. Today.”
A similar incident did happen already in the Champions League last season — but a penalty kick was not given that time.
In the quarterfinals, Arsenal defender Gabriel went unpunished for picking up a short pass from goalkeeper David Raya in the first leg against Bayern Munich.
Bayern’s then-coach Thomas Tuchel later criticized the referee who had said he would not award a penalty for a “kid’s mistake.”
A difference in the Villa incident was that the ball went forward out of the six-yard box with Martínez seeming to have intentionally restarted play early in the second half.
Mings apparently thought the ball was not yet in play. He walked forward to pick it up with his left hand and returned it to place it at the corner of the six-yard box.
Brugge captain Hans Vanaken converted the penalty in the 52nd minute to give Brugge a 1-0 lead, placing the ball to Martínez’s left as the World Cup-winning Argentina goalkeeper dived to his right.
Martínez tried to persuade German referee Tobias Stieler after the game that he had made a mistake.
VIlla defender Ezri Konsa suggested the referee compounded his mistakes because Mings had previously been shown a yellow card in the first half.
“If it is a handball, deliberate, then [Mings] should get a second yellow, he’s on a yellow already so why not send him off for that then? It killed the game,” Konsa told British broadcaster TNT in a post-game interview.
Villa had been the surprise leader in the 36-team standings and provisionally dropped to fifth before hosting Juventus in three weeks’ time.
Brugge has six points from two wins and two losses, and was in 20th place. After all eight rounds in January that would earn a place in the knockout playoffs round.
Information from The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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