It was a big night for Aston Villa at Club Brugge as we look to advance in the Champions League, but it had a little more meaning for Tyrone Mings.
The Villa centre-half’s blunder in this fixture in the league phase ultimately saw us suffer defeat, and despite having just returned from injury, he was restored to the starting line-up for the first leg of our round-of-16 tie on Tuesday evening.
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While we continue to show vulnerabilities as a defensive unit and were fortunate that our hosts weren’t in clinical form, Villa got revenge for that disappointing loss last year, and Mings got his redemption with a superb piece of defending that paved the way for us to get said victory.
The 31-year-old was excellent throughout in fairness, as he dealt with dangerous crosses into the box all night as he restored some physical presence and leadership to our backline, but his goal-line clearance in the second half was both stunning and decisive.
As the ball looked destined for the back of the net from Hans Vanaken’s header in the 69th minute with the two teams locked level at 1-1, Mings somehow contorted his body to get the faintest of touches on the ball to divert it to travel to the right side of the far post as far as we were concerned.
It was a sensational bit of defending that laid the foundation for us to then stage our late flurry to take an invaluable two-goal advantage into the second leg next week, and after what happened last time he was in Bruges and the subsequent fall-out, that was a major moment for Mings.
“It’s very important to get experiences. The first experience he had here was not good,” Emery said of Mings after the game. “Today, he reacted fantastic, playing focused and serious, saving one action which would have been a goal. We are demanding inside. Every player has to be demanding with themselves.”
With Pau Torres back on the bench in midweek after recovering from his injury setback, coupled with the addition of Axel Disasi in January, Villa now have multiple centre-half options again.
That in turn will take the strain off Mings to an extent as he’s struggled with injury issues of his own in recent months, but he will continue to be a fundamental presence and option in the squad.
The job is only half done for Villa after the first leg, but if we do indeed go on to advance to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, Mings’ clearance will have been a decisive moment in this tie to help us get over the line and keep our European hopes alive.
