Douglas Luiz MISSES crucial penalty in dying stages of Aston Villa’s shock 4-2 defeat by Olympiacos… as fans compare Brazilian’s horrendous effort to Simone Zaza’s infamous spot-kick for Italy

Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz was mocked for taking ‘one of the worst penalties you will ever see’ in the Europa Conference League semi-final against Olympiacos.

The Greek visitors – owned by Nottingham Forest chief Evangelos Marinakis – stunned Unai Emery’s Villa side as visiting striker Ayoub El Kaabi’s hat-trick earned his side a deserved 4-2 win.

Villa have it all to do in the second leg next week as they look to make their way to a historic major European final and Luiz will be aiming to deliver a much better performance in Athens.

The Brazilian is Villa’s most important penalty taker. He has scored four times from the spot in the Premier League this season, but missed his final attempt at a crucial moment in the match.

He made a mistake earlier in the match after giving away a penalty for handball in the first half.

Luiz had the opportunity to reduce the deficit against Olympiacos, but he was forced to undermine his attempt

Luiz was presented with a golden opportunity to reduce the deficit late at Villa Park after Jhon Duran was brought down in the penalty area just ten minutes after his introduction from the bench.

A long wait followed as the Olympiacos players tried to disrupt the 25-year-old’s routine and it proved to work as Diaz smashed his effort against the post.

The ball then rolled out of play and Diaz, embarrassed by the miss, pulled his Villa shirt over his head as shouts of joy at the other end of the stadium drowned out the groans of the home fans.

His Villa teammates tried to rally as they tried to force a way back into proceedings, with critics on social media slamming the midfielder’s threadbare effort.

One Clarets supporter was incredibly frustrated with Diaz’s all-round performance, posting on X: ‘Luiz pulls off one of the atrocious performances of all time.

‘As if we saved our worst performance for a long time for our biggest night in years. Insanity. That penalty miss feels absolutely crucial.;

Luiz’s second-half penalty hit the post before dribbling out of play at Villa Park

Fans compared Luiz’s atrocious effort to former Italian player Simone Zaza’s miss against Germany at the 2016 European Championship

Another added: ‘One of the worst penalties you will ever see from Douglas Luiz who had a terrible game for Aston Villa.’

A third comment also read: ‘Douglas Luiz with one of the worst penalties.’

Others compared Luiz’s run to the infamous approach of former Italian national Simone Zaza, who fired his penalty over the bar during the 2016 European Championship against Germany.

‘What a penalty from Douglas Luiz. Reminiscent of the great Zaza,” said another comical post on social media.