Champions League: German referee whistles strange penalty

Confusion in the 52nd minute in the Champions League game between Aston Villa and Club Brugge: After a goal kick for the English team, German referee Tobias Stieler stopped the game and pointed to the penalty spot. The Aston Villa players just looked at him in shock. What had happened?

Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez took the goal kick from his own six-yard box to his teammate Tyrone Mings, who was standing just a few meters away. The defender probably thought that Martínez wanted to pass the ball to him for a goal kick and took the ball in his hand. An unfortunate misunderstanding, but also an equally clear hand penalty.

Brugge’s Hans Vanaken then converted for a 1-0 lead – the decisive goal in the Belgians’ eventual victory. Bitter for Aston Villa that Mings’ handball provided the decisive scene of the game. Villa coach Unai Emery could hardly believe it after the game: “This mistake is really strange. It’s the biggest mistake we’ve made in my career as a coach. It’s only happened once in my entire life. Today .”

There was a similar scene in the premier class last season: Arsenal defender Gabriel misinterpreted a whistle in the quarter-final against FC Bayern and also took the ball into his own box. At that time, however, the Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg left the offense unpunished – on the grounds that it was a “childish mistake”.

In the 2nd league, however, in the game between Greuther Fürth and 1. FC Magdeburg, penalties were awarded twice in such situations. Tobias Stieler also acted correctly with his whistle in the Champions League game, said former top referee Manuel Gräfe on X: Stieler “applied the rules completely correctly.” “If everyone applies the rules however they want, then they can be abolished straight away,” Gräfe continued.