That’s a game Tyrone Mings and Aston Villa fans certainly won’t forget.
What a way for Mings to make his Champions League debut because, in the end, it was a nightmare and one he has to recover from as soon as possible.
Aston Villa’s 1-0 defeat to Club Brugge in the Champions League was deserved based on the team’s abject performance.
But, in the end, the bizarre penalty was the difference and it’s hard for the Aston Villa fans to accept, especially after what happened with Arsenal last season.
The same incident happened with Gabriel and Arsenal during their Champions League game against Bayern Munich, yet nothing was awarded and the game continued.
But Mings was the unlucky guy here because he was punished, the penalty was awarded and Villa went on to lose the match.
It has got many people talking, with Jamie Carragher, Micah Richards and Thierry Henry weighing in with their thoughts.
Jamie Carragher, Micah Richards and Thierry Henry react to Tyrone Mings’ handball during Aston Villa’s defeat to Club Brugge
Mings suffered a season-ending injury, returns 14 months later, makes his Champions League debut and then that happens.
In that sense, you feel for the centre-back because he didn’t mean it, wasn’t trying to gain advantage or cheat, and wasn’t even looking at Emi Martinez when he kicked the ball towards him.
Micah Richards suggested that he felt for the Villa centre-back, and whilst Jamie Carragher agreed, he added that it was ‘daft’ from Martinez too and ‘silly’ from Mings himself.
Thierry Henry was brief in his comments, but he stated that the incident with Arsenal last season should have been a penalty, just like the Villa one, as he told CBS Sports on Paramount+ (06/11/24 at 10:45 pm).
“Do you not feel for him a little bit?” said Richards. “Because it’s almost like they are resetting.”
“It’s just absolutely daft from him (Martinez) and Tyrone Mings,” said Carragher. “But I do feel for him a little bit. It’s a silly thing to do. Don’t do it. It gives them a penalty. The reason why I feel for him is, listen it’s brilliant for Brugge, but this happened last season with Arsenal. Exactly the same situation and the referee almost said ‘re-take it’.
“What he said was ‘I don’t want to give a penalty in a game of this magnitude for something like this. It’s something you would see in an under nine pitch’.”
Thierry Henry responded in the background “It should have been given,” regarding the Arsenal incident last season, before Carragher added: “But what I would say is that no one has gained an advantage. It’s obviously a mix-up. But when that happened last season. I imagined the referee wasn’t quite sure what to do. Has the game started or has it not? Maybe there should have been something said to all the clubs and officials. ‘If this situation happens again, then we want you to act the way the referee did tonight or we are going to give a penalty’. And they give a penalty tonight.”
What Unai Emery said about Mings’ handball
The issue with this Mings incident is that Villa are in a really bad run of form and they have lost three matches in all competitions.
So, it just puts a darker cloud on this incident, but in that sense, Villa have the right man in the dugout.
Unai Emery – whether you are winning or losing five in a row – is always as calm as everyone else, but he was pretty blunt on that Mings handball.
The Villa boss told BBC Sport that Mings’ mistake ‘changed everything’ and it’s something he has never seen before.
“The second half the mistake changed everything,” admitted Emery. “The key was the mistake we made. His mistake is completely strange. It’s only happened one time in all my life.”
