Unai Emery's Quest for the UEFA Super Cup with Aston Villa
Unai Emery has built an empire in the Europa League. Five titles, the latest with Aston Villa in May, when Freiburg were swept aside in Istanbul and a 30-year wait for silverware in Birmingham finally ended.
Yet one European trophy keeps slipping through his fingers.
On Wednesday night in Salzburg, at Red Bull Arena, the Aston Villa head coach goes after the UEFA Super Cup for a fourth time, against Champions League winners Paris St-Germain. For a man who obsesses over details and margins, this is a loose end he badly wants to tie up.
He will not call finishing fourth in the Premier League last season a failure. But he openly admitted he had wanted third, a landmark he has not yet reached with Villa. That will have gnawed away at him. The Super Cup sits in the same category: not career-defining, but irritatingly out of reach.
A trophy that keeps saying no
Emery has walked this road before and been sent home empty-handed each time.
In 2014, his Sevilla side ran into Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice, and the trophy went to the Bernabéu. A year later, in 2015, Barcelona, driven by Lionel Messi, edged Sevilla 5-4 after extra time in a wild, breathless final.
By the time Sevilla lost the 2016 Super Cup to Real Madrid, Emery had already left for PSG. The competition moved on without him; the frustration stayed.
His third crack came with Villarreal in 2021. Chelsea in Dublin, penalties, and another near miss. John McGinn has not let his manager forget it.
“He was reminding me last week,” Emery said, pointing to his captain. The smile carried a sting.
Now it is PSG again, this time as opponents, not employers. Around 6,000 Villa fans are heading to Austria, hoping to watch their manager finally rip this page out of his unwanted script.
“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,” Emery said. “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.”
Friendly in disguise, or something more?
Every August, the same question returns. Is the Super Cup a serious prize or just a glamorous warm-up, a Community Shield with a European badge?
Sunday’s meeting between Arsenal and Manchester City carried that same debate. The Super Cup lives in the same grey area.
PSG’s players are having none of that. Midfielder Vitinha, already a four-time Ligue 1 champion, dismissed the idea that back-to-back Champions League winners would treat it lightly, though he admitted “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 echoed him. PSG, who complained about the size of their dressing room at Red Bull Arena and were given an extra one by Uefa, are not in Austria to coast.
“Just because we’ve won things these past seasons, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. We know there’ll be plenty of obstacles,” he 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.”
For PSG, it is about stacking trophies. For Emery and Villa, it is about proving they belong at this table every year.
The quarter-final that changed perceptions
This is not just a one-off European night. It is a rerun of one of last season’s most chaotic ties.
Villa and PSG met in the Champions League quarter-finals in 2024-25. The French champions won the first leg 3-1 at Parc des Princes. When they went 2-0 up in Birmingham to lead 5-1 on aggregate, the tie looked dead.
Villa refused to accept it.
They roared back to win 3-2 on the night, falling just short at 5-4 overall. The comeback did not carry them into the semi-finals, but it did something else: it announced that Emery had turned Villa into a side capable of going toe-to-toe with Europe’s elite.
It also left a mark on PSG.
“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.”
That second half in Birmingham now hangs over this Super Cup. PSG know what can happen if they let Villa breathe.
A new-look Villa, same edge
Only 484 days have passed since that quarter-final, yet Villa will walk out in Salzburg looking like a very different team.
Morgan Rogers, Lucas Digne and Youri Tielemans have all been sold. Amadou Onana is sidelined until next year. Boubacar Kamara is back in the squad but only just returning from a serious knee injury suffered in January.
Emi Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins have not travelled after their World Cup exertions, Emery granting them a month off. It leaves the prospect that only four starters from that PSG tie 18 months ago will begin this one. Five of the substitutes that night have also moved on.
For a side that has felt so stable and meticulously built under Emery, that is a jolt.
“A lot has changed in the eight years I’ve been here,” McGinn 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.”
The Super Cup will not define Emery’s reign at Villa. But under the Salzburg lights, against his old club and with that Champions League quarter-final still echoing, it offers something he rarely gets in Europe these days: a shot at closure.
