Unai Emery Eyes UEFA Super Cup Glory with Aston Villa
Unai Emery has built an empire in Europe’s second competition. Five Europa League titles, the latest with Aston Villa in May, when Freiburg were beaten in Istanbul and a 30-year wait for silverware in the Midlands finally snapped.
Yet one cup still ducks his grasp.
On Wednesday night in Salzburg, under the lights at Red Bull Arena, Emery goes after the UEFA Super Cup for a fourth time. Aston Villa against Paris St-Germain. Europa League winners against back-to-back Champions League holders. The one prize missing from his European CV.
He has been here before, and it still stings. Real Madrid. Barcelona. Chelsea. Three chances, three defeats. Cristiano Ronaldo sank his Sevilla side in 2014. A year later, Lionel Messi dragged Barcelona through a 5-4 extra-time thriller. In 2021, with Villarreal, he watched Chelsea edge it on penalties in Dublin.
For a man wired like Emery, those nights don’t just fade.
A perfectionist with one box still unticked
Last season he set a domestic target that sounded almost odd from the outside. He wanted third place in the Premier League, he said, because he hadn’t done it with Villa. They finished fourth instead. A historic achievement for the club, but for Emery it carried a faint aftertaste. Close, not quite perfect.
The Super Cup will sit in the same category. Some see it as a glammed-up friendly with a medal at the end, a European Community Shield. He doesn’t.
“He was reminding me last week,” Emery said, nodding towards captain John McGinn and that Chelsea defeat. The memory is fresh. So is the hunger.
“Of course, it’s an opportunity. A trophy is something that can give us a special moment. To play for trophies is, as a professional, our objective.
“PSG are the favourites but I am looking forward to playing, how we can test this match against PSG with our capacity?
“As a coach, as a player, as a club, it's a trophy. It's one thing that makes us proud of how we are and how we arrive here.”
Across the modern era, only two men truly dominate this fixture. Carlo Ancelotti sits on five Super Cup wins – two with AC Milan, three with Real Madrid. Pep Guardiola is one behind, with four. Emery has repeatedly run into them and their clubs on this stage. Ancelotti’s Madrid beat his Sevilla in 2014; Real did it again to Sevilla in 2016, by which time Emery had already left for PSG.
Now the circle closes. Salzburg. His old club on the opposite bench. Around 6,000 Villa supporters making the trip, hoping this is the night the pattern finally breaks.
PSG insist this is no pre-season stroll
From the outside, it is easy to label this as a curtain-raiser with a trophy. Ask PSG, and the tone changes.
Vitinha, four-time Ligue 1 champion and part of the side that has just conquered Europe two seasons running, pushed away any notion that the Super Cup is treated lightly. He did, though, admit the build-up has been tight.
“Pre-season was a little short,” the Portugal midfielder said. “We’re still hungry for victories, trophies. It’s very difficult to maintain those levels but we’re still hungry.”
Marquinhos echoed him. The defender stressed that even for a club used to lifting silverware, this matters. PSG have already made their presence felt off the pitch in Salzburg, unhappy with the size of their dressing room at Red Bull Arena and handed an extra one by Uefa. On it, they want another line on the honours list.
“Just because we've won things these past seasons, that doesn't mean it's easy. We know there'll be plenty of obstacles,” Marquinhos said.
“Personally, I want more, and each player in the squad is like that. We've all worked to get here, to arrive in the best condition.”
A quarter-final that changed how Europe saw Villa
This isn’t just a one-off glamour tie. It’s a rerun of one of last season’s most breathless Champions League quarter-finals.
At Parc des Princes, Villa were outgunned and outclassed for long spells, losing 3-1 and seemingly clinging to the tie by their fingertips. In Birmingham, the situation looked hopeless. PSG surged into a 2-0 lead on the night, 5-1 up on aggregate. Villa Park braced itself for a painful lesson.
Then the game flipped.
Villa roared back, turned 2-0 down into a 3-2 win on the night and came within a goal of one of the great European shocks, bowing out 5-4 on aggregate. They left the competition, but left a mark.
That comeback, that refusal to fold, was one of the clearest signs that Emery had turned Villa into a team capable of standing toe-to-toe with Europe’s elite. PSG felt it.
“It was such a difficult test, especially the second half,” Vitinha admitted. “We’ll be ready but we’re conscious of how difficult it's going to be.”
A very different Villa, same hard edge
Barely 484 days have passed since that quarter-final. The Villa side that walks out in Austria will look nothing like the one that rattled PSG in Birmingham.
Morgan Rogers, Lucas Digne and Youri Tielemans have all gone. Amadou Onana, a key midfield presence, is out until next year. Boubacar Kamara is only just back in a matchday squad after the serious knee injury he suffered in January and cannot yet be pushed to the limit.
Emi Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins have not travelled, each given a month off after their World Cup exertions. It leaves Emery staring at a radically reshaped XI. As few as four starters from that quarter-final could begin this Super Cup. Five of the substitutes from that night have also moved on.
For a club that has built its rise on continuity under Emery, it is a jarring level of change.
McGinn has lived all of it.
“A lot has changed in the eight years I've been here,” the captain said. “When you are signing the best young English talent and players are performing at the highest level there will be interest.
“We have a structure in place, standards and rules which have made us a success. I'm really excited about the new Aston Villa.
“We have our main core, the same manager, same methods and same desire to achieve more. A lot of people thought we reached a ceiling a couple of seasons ago and we proved them wrong.”
That is the backdrop as Emery walks back into a Super Cup dugout. A new-look team, the same relentless manager, and the old giants of Europe waiting on the other side.
The king of the Europa League knows exactly what this night could mean. The question now is whether Aston Villa are ready to turn a “glorified friendly” into the statement trophy that says they truly belong among Europe’s ruling class.
