Tyrone Mings makes unwanted Champions League history with gaffe on nightmare debut after incident Arsenal got away with

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Tyrone Mings had a moment to forget in his Champions League debut after a major brain fade inside the Aston Villa box.

Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez took a goal kick early in the second half and passed it to defender Mings.

Mings gave away an easy penalty

However, Mings, who presumably had not heard the referee’s whistle, picked the ball up before placing it down on the turf and passing to Martinez.

Unfortunately for Mings, the referee had indeed blown his whistle for the goal kick and blew it again seconds later to signal a penalty, sparking confused reactions from the entire Villa team.

Despite the protests, the referee remained unmoved as Club Brugge‘s Hans Vanaken stepped up and slotted the ball down the middle to hand the Belgian side a surprise 1-0 lead in the 52nd minute.

Mings, who was cautioned in the first half and was perhaps a little fortunate to avoid a second yellow for the handball, was taken off just 14 minutes later for Pau Torres.

Unfortunately for Mings, the penalty also meant he became the first Englishman to concede a penalty on his Champions League debut.

The 18-cap England international will have felt aggrieved his calamitous error was picked up by the referee given Arsenal defender Gabriel got away with the exact same offence last season.

Gabriel picked up a pass from David Raya during the Gunners’ Champions League tie against Bayern Munich in April.

However, the Brazilian defender claimed he was innocent as he believed the ball wasn’t in play despite the referee blowing his whistle to restart play.

Bayern led the contest 2-1 at the time but fortunately for the Gunners they recovered to secure a 2-2 draw thanks to Leandro Trossard.

Former Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel vented his fury after the match and was left annoyed the referee saw the incident but did not punish Gabriel.

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Mings was taken off not long after the penalty

“I think the referee did not have the courage today to give a deserved penalty in a bit of a crazy and awkward situation,” Tuchel told TNT Sports.

“But he admitted on the pitch that he saw the situation, but the quarter-final is not enough for him to give a penalty for a kid’s mistake.

“So he admitted that he knows about the mistake the player made, that is a bit frustrating.”

More to come…

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