Aston Villa's Emery: Ming's handball is the biggest mistake I've ever seen

Aston Villa's winning streak in the Champions League ended after a bizarre penalty incident on Wednesday, which coach Unai Emery described as the “biggest mistake” he has ever seen in his career.

Defender Tyrone Mings' mental error, who conceded a penalty by picking up the ball in his hand after a short goal kick from goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, gave Club Brugge a 1-0 win.

In the club's first appearance in the elite competition since becoming defending champions 41 years ago, Villa had won their first three games without conceding a single goal.

“His mistake is completely strange. It’s the biggest mistake I’ve seen in my career,” Emery said. “This has only happened to me once in my entire life. Today.”

A similar incident occurred last season in the Champions League – although there was no penalty back then.

In the quarter-finals, Arsenal defender Gabriel went unpunished for intercepting a short pass from goalkeeper David Raya in the first leg against Bayern Munich.

Bayern's then-coach Thomas Tuchel later criticized the referee for saying he would not award a penalty because of a “childish mistake.”

One difference in the Villa incident was that the ball went forward from the six-yard box and Martínez appeared to have intentionally restarted play at the start of the second half.

Mings apparently thought the ball wasn't in play yet. He went forward to pick it up with his left hand and brought it back to place at the corner of the six-yard box.

Brugge captain Hans Vanaken converted the penalty in the 52nd minute to give Brugge a 1-0 lead. He placed the ball to Martínez's left while the Argentine world champion goalkeeper dove to the right.

After the game, Martínez tried to convince German referee Tobias Stieler that he had made a mistake.

VIlla defender Ezri Konsa suggested the referee compounded his mistakes because Mings had previously shown a yellow card in the first half.

“If it's a handball, intentional, then (Mings) should get a second yellow card, he already has a yellow card, so why not send him off for that? That destroyed the game,” Konsa told British broadcaster TNT after the game.

Villa had been surprisingly top of the 36-team standings, falling provisionally to fifth place before hosting Juventus in three weeks' time.

Brugge has six points from two wins and two defeats and was in 20th place. After all eight rounds in January, a place in the knockout playoff round would be secured.

Information from the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.