Club Brugge 1-0 Aston Villa: Tyrone Mings’ freak penalty concession hands the home side a famous Champions League win – and consigns Unai Emery’s outfit to first defeat of the campaign

Every player who has played in the Champions League can remember his debut in the competition and Tyrone Mings will recall his for making a once-in-a-lifetime mistake.

Back only recently after more than a year out due to serious knee injuries, Mings made the sort of error usually delivered by a primary school kid in the yard at lunchtime.

Early in the second half, Aston Villa were awarded a goal-kick. Emi Martinez placed the ball in his six-yard box and passed short to Mings. Believing the ball was not yet live, Mings decided to pick it up in his hands before passing it back to his goalkeeper. Both men were stunned to see referee Tobias Stieler march forward and point to the spot.

Clearly, Mings had not realised that the German official had signalled to restart play and Club Brugge were only too happy to accept the gift. Hans Vanaken gambled correctly that Martinez would commit himself and slid the penalty down the middle, sealing a third straight defeat for Villa in all competitions. Emery was livid.

‘It’s the biggest mistake that’s happened in my career as a coach, and I don’t think I’ll see it again in my life,’ he said. ‘It’s completely strange and it was key to the result.

Club Brugge skipper Hans Vanaken made the most of the gift and calmly converted his 52nd-minute penalty 

The Belgian side recorded their second win of the competition and climbed up to 21st in the standings

Tyrone Mings was unfortunate to concede the penalty which handed the home side the chance to claim the win

‘These decisions are for referees to make. They have the responsibility to make them in the way they see fit. It’s not about Tyrone Mings or Emi Martinez. We have to forget quickly.’

Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes made a similar blunder during last season’s Champions League tie against Bayern Munich – only to be let off by referee Glenn Nyberg, who judged it would not have been in the spirit of the game to give a spot-kick. Mings was not so lucky.

‘If it’s a deliberate handball then he needs a second yellow,’ argued Ezri Konsa. ‘He was on a yellow already so why not send him off for that? It killed the game.

‘It’s a mistake. It’s not a mistake we want to make but there’s nothing we can do, we’ve got to move on from it.’

Few coaches pay as much attention to detail as Emery. He will have watched countless videos of Brugge in the build-up to this tie and held several meetings with his entire squad and individual players, nailing down the tactical plan to the letter. You can dream up the cleverest ideas in the world, though. They will not protect you from bolts from the blue like these.

Mings will bounce back. The injuries he sustained on the opening day of last season might have ended the careers of some players. Yet the England centre-back is as mentally strong as they come and will know how to overcome this mistake.

Emery should be more worried about the performance – laboured, tired, uneasy, and never troubling Brugge goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. The result is unlikely to compromise Villa’s chances of progress to the knockout stages of the Champions League, as they opened their campaign with three straight wins. It will not fill Villa fans with confidence, however, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Premier League leaders Liverpool.

Usually so certain of his tactics, it felt here as though Emery fiddled needlessly. He asked Morgan Rogers and John McGinn to switch positions – an experiment he abandoned at half-time – and took a risk by picking Mings and the out-of-form Diego Carlos in central defence. Villa needed a fine performance from Martinez to keep the score down and much better is needed at Anfield. Though Emery denied his side had lacked intensity, they ran 4km less than Brugge here.

With qualification from the league phase tantalisingly close, Emery included Mings and Boubacar Kamara for the first time in the competition.

Villa’s play in the first half lacked the confidence of their first three games in this competition. The build-up was slow and their defending uncertain.

Just after the 20-minute mark, Villa created their first chance. Youri Tielemans robbed Vanaken in the middle and set John McGinn free. Ollie Watkins collected and bought a yard of space from Joel Ordonez, only to drag his shot wide. Moments later, McGinn headed Kamara’s cross over.

When Mings was booked for a late challenge, his centre-back partner Carlos protested so much that he was also shown a yellow card. Villa were then lucky not to go 1-0 down.

Martinez did superbly to turn Ferran Jutgla’s close-range effort on to the post, and then recovered impressively to hang on to Christos Tzolis’ strike from the edge of the box. Villa were looking uncertain now and Mings was forced to hack off the line when Casper Nielsen headed Maxim De Cuyper’s cross goalwards.

Unai Emery was angered by German referee Tobias Stieler’s decision to award a penalty after the misunderstanding

Villa tried to respond. Leon Bailey dashed down the right and set up McGinn, who took aim from 25 yards but former Liverpool goalkeeper Mignolet made a simple save.

With Rogers drifting inside throughout the first half, Brugge were able to attack effectively down their right, leaving Ian Maatsen isolated at left-back. After the break, was no surprise to see Rogers reclaim his usual spot close to Watkins with McGinn moving to the left.

Yet no tactical switch could prevent what happened six minutes after half-time. Villa can complain all they like at the penalty call but this was a basic loss of concentration. Vanaken duly did the rest from the spot.

Brugge midfielder Ardon Jashari was running the show in the middle. His clipped pass found the run of Jutgla and Mings, desperate to redeem himself, lunged by block Andreas Skov Olsen’s shot from the centre-forward’s lay-off. Skov Olsen then shot over from 20 yards following Tzolis’ fabulous burst down the right.