Unai Emery praised Tyrone Mings after his redemption against Club Brugge helped Aston Villa put one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Just 118 days after Mings inexplicably picked up a goal kick in the penalty area to send Villa to defeat in November’s league phase match against the same opposition, he redeemed himself with a sensational goal-saving clearance which swung the balance of the match.
It was finely poised at 1-1 after Leon Bailey’s opener after 135 seconds, which Mings set up, was cancelled out by Maxim De Cuyper.
The centre-half’s intervention to divert Hans Vanaken’s goalbound header proved pivotal as Brandon Mechele’s 82nd-minute own goal followed by Marco Asensio’s penalty six minutes later saw Villa grab the tie with both hands.
BEST GOAL-LINE CLEARANCE EVER??? 😱
Tyrone Mings stops Hans Vanaken from giving Brugge the lead in SPECTACULAR style 🤯
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— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 4, 2025
Emery said: “It is very important getting experiences. The first experience he had here was not good but today he reacted fantastic, playing focused, serious, saving one action that was a goal.
“We are demanding everyone inside. I am demanding with the players and they have to be demanding themselves.
“Of course I know the difficulties in football and how we can (have) experiences and how we can get better and analyse everything deeply and try and correct it, that is my only target with the players.
“We corrected something from the match we played here. Of course we have to correct something we didn’t do well today here for the next week against Bruges.”
Emery insisted it is not job done, despite Villa’s clear advantage going into next week’s second leg in Villa Park.
But Villa are enjoying a dream debut season in Europe’s premier club competition and only a second-leg collapse on home soil will deny them a last-eight meeting with either Liverpool or Paris St Germain.
“We are not in the quarter-final,” he added.
“There’s still 90 minutes to play, we’re ready in case we need extra-time and penalties because I know how difficult it is in each match and how we can change one match in 90 minutes.
“The players, I’m sure they have experiences before as well with matches like that and we have to respect the opponent always.
“There are still 90 minutes to play. They won against Atalanta 3-1 and they compete very well.
“We need to watch the match again with the players to understand the difficulties we can face against teams in Europe.
“I am happy but calm, getting balance. There are still 90 minutes to play.”
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