Unai Emery Was Furious About The Carelessness Of The Mings That Made Aston Villa Lose

Badminton Mings made a ridiculous mistake that made Aston Villa lose in the Champions League (Instagram/@avfcofficial).

JAKARTA - Aston Villa's three wins in the Champions League ended. Their fourth match ended in a ridiculous defeat.

The Villans lost 0-1 to Club Brugge at Jan Breydels Stadium on Thursday, November 7, 2024, early morning WIB.

The defeat was due to a strange penalty incident that made Villa coach, Unai Emery, go berserk.

Defender Badminton Mings took the ball with his hand from Emiliano Martinez's short goal kick. The Mings was decided handball because the ball had been passed by Martinez.

Emery sees Mings' ridiculous mistake as the strangest mistake he has ever seen in his career.

"His mistake was really weird. It was the biggest mistake I saw in my career. It only happened once in my life. Today," Emery said as reported by ESPN.

A similar incident did occur in the Champions League last season, but a penalty was not awarded at the time.

In the quarter-finals, Arsenal defender Gabriel was not convicted of receiving a short pass from goalkeeper David Raya in the first leg against Bayern Munich.

Bayern Munich's coach at the time, Thomas Tuchel, then criticized the referee for saying he would not give a penalty for a child's mistakes.

The difference in Villa's incident was that the ball advanced forward towards the exit of the penalty box with Martinez seemingly deliberately restarting the game quickly.

Mings thought the ball was not yet in the game. He stepped forward to pick it up with his left hand and returned it to put it in the corner of the penalty box.

Club Brugge captain Hans Vanaken then managed to convert the penalty into a goal in the 52nd minute. The 1-0 advantage lasted until the match was over.

Martinez tried to convince German referee Tobias Styler, after the game that the judge had made a mistake.

Villa defender Ezri Konsa also suggested the referee that the penalty was beyond logic. He emphasized that Mings deliberately touched the ball, should have received a yellow card too.

"If it's handball, intentional, then (Mings) must get a second yellow card. He's already got a yellow card (in the first half)."

"So, why not just send it away? It's a game-breaking," Konsa told TNT in an interview after the game.

Meanwhile, Villa have won their first three games without conceding in the club's first Champions League appearance since they won 41 years ago.

Villa took the lead in the previous standings by surprise. However, the defeat to Club Brugge sent them to fifth in the standings with nine points.

Aston Villa will next meet Juventus on November 28, 2024.