Douglas Luiz MISSES crucial penalty in dying stages of Aston Villa’s shock 4-2 defeat by Olympiacos… as fans compare Brazilian’s horrendous effort to Simone Zaza’s infamous spot-kick for Italy

Aston Villa‘s Douglas Luiz was mocked for taking ‘one of the worst penalties you will ever see’ in Thursday’s Europa Conference League semi-final defeat against Olympiacos.

The Greek visitors – owned by Nottingham Forest chief Evangelos Marinakis – stunned Unai Emery‘s Villa side as visiting striker Ayoub El Kaabi’s hat-trick earned his side a deserved 4-2 victory.

Villa have it all to do in the second leg next week as they attempt to navigate their way to a historic major European final and Luiz will be aiming to produce a much improved performance in Athens.

The Brazilian is Villa’s main penalty-taker having scored four times from the spot in the Premier League this season, but scuffed his latest effort at a crucial time in the game.

He was previously at fault earlier in the match after giving away a penalty for handball in the first half. 

Aston Villa ‘s Douglas Luiz was mocked for taking ‘one of the worst penalties you will ever see’ against Olympiacos on Thursday

Luiz had a chance to reduce the deficit against Olympiacos but scuffed his effort

Luiz was presented with a golden opportunity to reduce the deficit late on at Villa Park after Jhon Duran was brought down in the box just 10 minutes after making his introduction from the bench. 

A lengthy wait followed as Olympiacos players tried to disrupt the 25-year-old’s routine and it proved to work as Diaz struck his effort against the post.

The ball then rolled out of play and Diaz – too embarrassed by the miss – pulled his Villa shirt up over his head as screams of delight in the away end of the stadium drowned out the groans of home supporters.

His Villa team-mates tried to rally as they attempted to force a way back into proceedings as critics on social media trolled the midfielder’s scuffed effort.

One Clarets supporter was incredibly frustrated with Diaz’ all-round performance, posting on X: ‘Luiz pulling out one of the all time horrendous performances. 

‘As if we saved up our worst performance for a long long time for our biggest night in years. Madness. That penalty miss feels absolutely pivotal.;

Luiz’s second-half spot-kick struck the post before dribbling out of play at Villa Park

Fans compared Luiz’s horrendous effort to former Italy player Simone Zaza who missed against Germany in Euro 2016

Another similarly added: ‘One of the worst penalties you’ll ever see from Douglas Luiz, who’s had a dreadful game for Aston Villa.’

A third comment similarly read: ‘Douglas Luiz with one of the worst penalty kicks.’

Others compared Luiz’s tip-toe run-up to the infamous approach of former Italy national Simone Zaza who blasted his penalty over the bar in the Euro 2016 clash against Germany.

‘What a penalty from Douglas Luiz. Reminiscent of the great Zaza,’ said another comical post on social media.