Tyrone Mings will remember his two trips to Bruges – for very different reasons | OneFootball

Tyrone Mings says it has been impossible to forget his Bruges blunder but was happy to earn redemption as he helped Aston Villa put one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Mings was part of the Villa side that beat Club Brugge 3-1 in the first leg of the last-16 tie on Tuesday.

It was just 118 days since the centre-back’s embarrassing error – inexplicably picking up a goal kick in the penalty area – sent the Premier League side crashing to a 1-0 defeat in November’s league phase match.

But he atoned for it in style, setting up Leon Bailey’s third-minute opener before producing a brilliant goal-line clearance when the game was finely poised at 1-1.

“I think both times here have been a night to remember for different reasons,” he said.

“How much was it on my mind? It’s impossible for it not to be because everybody keeps bringing it up all the time.

“When we saw the draw and knew we were coming here I was fully aware people were going to talk about it again, as they should because I think that game had 0-0 written all over it.

“Unfortunately because of the penalty we came away losing last time so it was nice to come out on the right side of the big moments tonight.

“It is important to bring it up because it is part of our history and part of what happened. I have no problem, I have said since that if it was going to happen to anybody and be such a big talking point I’m happy for it to happen to me.

“You see the character to come here tonight and put in the shift we did was good.”

The England international’s sublime intervention to divert Hans Vanaken’s goal-bound 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.

Asked whether he knew much about it, he replied: “I have made a few goal-line clearances in my time at Villa, I can’t not know what I am doing every time, at some point someone has to say ‘good clearance’.

“It’s instinct. As a defender, when the ball goes over my head my natural reaction is to drop on to the line in case something like that happens.

“If we did that another 10 times again, I’m not sure I’d be able to do it, make that fine of a touch to make it go around the post, but you don’t need to, you just need to do it at the time.”

Although Villa are in pole position to book a last-eight date with either Paris St Germain or Liverpool, Mings insists it is not job done.

He added: “I am fully aware it’s only half-time in the tie. It sounds like such a cliche but I don’t really feel much different tonight than I did when we left last time.

“Our responsibility as players is to stay calm and not be too high or too low and I think it is really important for the fans to enjoy this moment.

“We have a healthy but delicate lead going into the second leg. We will treat it with the adequate respect like we did tonight.”