Unai Emery's Quest for the Elusive Super Cup
Unai Emery chases the one European ghost that will not leave him alone.
The Aston Villa manager has built a career on owning the Europa League, lifting it five times, the latest in May when Villa ended a 30-year wait for silverware by beating Freiburg in Istanbul. That night underlined his status as a specialist in European knockout football. Yet the Super Cup – the stage where Europa League winners meet the Champions League elite – keeps slipping through his fingers.
On Wednesday in Salzburg, he gets another crack at it. Another shot at a competition some dismiss as a shiny friendly, but which Emery treats as a missing piece.
Emery vs the Super Cup
This will be his fourth attempt. The record so far is cruel.
Real Madrid first. Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in 2014 to deny Emery’s Sevilla. A year later came Barcelona and a 5-4 extra-time thriller, Lionel Messi dragging the Catalans through in a classic that still stings. By 2016, when Sevilla lost again to Real, Emery had already left for Paris St-Germain.
His third personal tilt at the trophy came with Villarreal in 2021. Chelsea in Dublin. Penalties. Agony again.
For a manager wired like Emery, those near-misses do not just fade into the background. They sit there, nagging. Just as finishing fourth in the Premier League last season – historic for Villa in modern terms – still grated because he had publicly set third as the target.
The Super Cup falls into the same category. Officially, a curtain-raiser. For Emery, a test of where his work really stands.
Salzburg stage, familiar opponent
Now comes Paris St-Germain, the club he once coached, the Champions League holders, under the lights at Red Bull Arena. Around 6,000 Villa fans are travelling, sensing this is not a trip to treat lightly.
Emery knows exactly what is at stake.
“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,” he said, with Villa captain John McGinn reminding him recently of that Chelsea defeat.
“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.”
The company he is chasing is elite. Carlo Ancelotti sits on five Super Cups – two with AC Milan, three with Real Madrid. Pep Guardiola has four, spread across Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. Ancelotti’s third came, pointedly, at Emery’s expense with that 2014 Madrid win over Sevilla.
So does this game really matter, or is it football’s equivalent of the Community Shield – Arsenal v Manchester City with a ribbon on top?
Try telling PSG that it is a warm-up.
PSG still hungry
Vitinha, a four-time Ligue 1 winner with the club, brushed aside the idea that back-to-back Champions League titles have dulled any edge, though he admitted the French champions’ “pre-season was a little short”.
“We're still hungry for victories, trophies. It's very difficult to maintain those levels but we're still hungry,” the Portugal midfielder said.
Defender Marquinhos went further, framing the Super Cup as part of a wider demand inside PSG to keep stacking trophies, even on nights when the surroundings are not to their taste. The club were unhappy with the size of their dressing room at Red Bull Arena and were given an extra one by Uefa.
“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.”
Memories of a near-miracle
This is not just a one-off meeting. Wednesday’s game is a rerun of one of last season’s most breathless Champions League ties.
In the 2024-25 quarter-final, Villa walked into Parc des Princes and left 3-1 down. Back in Birmingham, they fell 5-1 behind on aggregate. Done. Buried. Or so it seemed.
Then Villa erupted.
They surged from 2-0 down on the night to win 3-2, eventually going out 5-4 on aggregate but leaving a scar on PSG’s memory and a marker across Europe. That second half at Villa Park became one of the clearest signs that Emery had dragged Villa into the company of the continent’s heavyweights.
“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.”
PSG know what can happen if they let Villa breathe.
A different Villa, same core
The twist is that Villa will look very different in Austria, despite that recent history being only 484 days old.
Morgan Rogers, Lucas Digne and Youri Tielemans have all been sold. Amadou Onana is out until next year. Boubacar Kamara is back in the squad but only just returning from a serious knee injury suffered in January.
The spine that carried Villa through last season’s run has been disrupted again by international success. Emi Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins have not travelled, granted a month off after their World Cup exertions.
The consequence is stark: there is a realistic chance only four of the starters from that epic night against PSG will begin this one. Five of the substitutes from that tie have also moved on. For a side that felt so stable, so clearly defined under Emery, the churn is dramatic.
McGinn has lived all of it.
“A lot has changed in the eight years I've been here,” the skipper 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 to Salzburg. A coach obsessed with marginal gains, a squad reshaped but not stripped of belief, a European superpower wary of old wounds reopening.
For Emery, this is not just about another medal. It is about finally bending the Super Cup to his will – and proving that Aston Villa now belong on nights when only serial winners usually walk away smiling.
