Emery's Quest for Super Cup Glory
Unai Emery rules the Europa League. That crown is undisputed.
In May, he lifted a fifth title in the competition, Aston Villa’s win over Freiburg in Istanbul ending a 30-year wait for silverware and underlining his status as the tournament’s specialist. Yet one European curtain-raiser continues to slip from his grasp.
The Super Cup.
On Wednesday night in Salzburg, at Red Bull Arena, Emery goes after it for a fourth time, this time with Villa against Champions League winners Paris St-Germain. For a coach obsessed with detail and legacy, it is a gap on the CV that irritates.
A perfectionist chasing the one that got away
Emery’s standards are brutal, mostly on himself. Last season he talked openly about wanting third place in the Premier League, not because it was realistic for Villa historically, but because he had not yet done it with this group. They finished fourth. A triumph in almost every context. For Emery, something that still gnaws.
The Super Cup sits in the same category. Technically a one-off, a showpiece. Emotionally, a trophy that keeps dodging him.
His record in the game is painful reading. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea. Three giants, three defeats. With Sevilla, he lost 2-0 to Real in 2014, Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice. A year later, a wild 5-4 extra-time defeat to a Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona left Sevilla broken and Emery empty-handed again.
By the time Sevilla lost the 2016 Super Cup, once more to Real, Emery had already left for PSG. He returned to the fixture with Villarreal in 2021, took Chelsea to penalties in Dublin, and still watched the trophy go elsewhere.
Now he walks out against his former club with 6,000 Villa fans behind him and another chance to break the pattern.
“He was reminding me last week,” Emery said, pointing at his captain John McGinn as the Chelsea defeat came up again. “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.”
Does the Super Cup really matter?
The Super Cup has always lived in an awkward space. A trophy, but not quite a season-defining one. A showpiece, but often treated like a high-end friendly.
Carlo Ancelotti has five of them – two with AC Milan, three with Real Madrid. Pep Guardiola sits one behind after wins with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. They clearly cared enough to win it repeatedly.
Ancelotti’s third came at Emery’s expense in 2014. Another scar.
The comparison with the Community Shield is obvious. Arsenal and Manchester City played out their own pre-season statement on Sunday, a game with a trophy but not quite the edge of a title decider. The Super Cup often feels similar, yet those on the pitch insist it cuts deeper.
PSG midfielder Vitinha, already a four-time Ligue 1 champion, rejected any suggestion that the back-to-back Champions League winners treat it as a light run-out, even if he admitted their “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 international said.
Defender Marquinhos backed that up, stressing that the competition still carries weight in a club obsessed with stacking trophies. PSG, unhappy with the size of their dressing room at Red Bull Arena and given an extra one by Uefa, are clearly not approaching the night casually.
“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
The meeting is not just about Emery and his personal duel with the Super Cup. It’s also a rerun of one of last season’s most chaotic Champions League ties.
Villa and PSG met in the 2024-25 quarter-finals. The French side won the first leg 3-1 at Parc des Princes and then surged into a 5-1 aggregate lead in Birmingham. The tie looked dead. Embarrassingly so for Villa.
Then Villa erupted.
They fought back from 2-0 down on the night to win 3-2, going out 5-4 on aggregate but leaving a mark on Europe and on PSG’s memory. It was one of the clearest signs that Emery had turned Villa into a side that could not just qualify for the Champions League, but scare its elite.
Vitinha has not forgotten.
“It was such a difficult test, especially the second half,” he said. “We’ll be ready but we’re conscious of how difficult it’s going to be.”
A very different Villa
That night in Birmingham feels close, but the team sheet tells a different story. Just 484 days on, Villa arrive in Austria transformed.
Morgan Rogers, Lucas Digne and Youri Tielemans have been sold. Amadou Onana is out injured until next year. Boubacar Kamara is back in the squad after a serious knee injury suffered in January, but still easing his way into full fitness.
Emi Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins have not travelled after their World Cup exertions, Emery granting them a month off. It opens the door to a radically altered side.
There is a real possibility that only four of the players who started against PSG 18 months ago will start in Salzburg. Five of the substitutes from that night have also moved on. For a team that had become one of the Premier League’s most settled and consistent under Emery, it is a jolt.
“A lot has changed in the eight years I’ve been here,” said McGinn.
“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.”
The king of the Europa League now walks into Salzburg with a reshaped squad, an old wound in this competition and another giant in front of him. The question is no longer whether the Super Cup matters.
For Emery and this new-look Villa, it’s how much it can say about where they are going next.
