Emery’s Quest for the UEFA Super Cup: A Trophy That Eludes Him

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 still sits just out of reach.

On Wednesday night in Salzburg, at Red Bull Arena, Emery goes after the UEFA Super Cup for a fourth time. Across from him: Champions League winners Paris St-Germain, the club he once coached and the team that now stand between him and a prize that keeps slipping away.

The one that keeps getting away

Emery’s record in this competition is brutal. Three finals, three defeats.

Cristiano Ronaldo struck twice as Real Madrid beat his Sevilla side in 2014. A year later, Lionel Messi inspired Barcelona to a 5-4 extra-time win in a wild, breathless Super Cup. By 2016, Emery had already left for PSG when Sevilla lost again to Real.

He returned to the stage with Villarreal in 2021, only to lose to Chelsea on penalties in Dublin.

For a coach obsessed with detail and marginal gains, that run stings. So does falling just short in the league. Last season, Emery openly targeted third place in the Premier League with Villa because he had never done it with the club. They finished fourth. A triumph by almost any measure, but not quite enough for a perfectionist.

This Super Cup will sit in the same category. Win it, and it becomes another landmark in his Villa project. Lose again, and it’s another scar.

“He was reminding me last week,” Emery said, nodding towards captain John McGinn as he recalled that Chelsea defeat. “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.”

Around 6,000 Villa fans will travel to Austria to see if this is the night the pattern finally breaks.

Does the Super Cup really matter?

The Super Cup has always lived in a strange space. It carries a trophy, a stage, a global audience. It also carries the whiff of a high-end friendly, a glamorous curtain-raiser for the serious business to come.

Carlo Ancelotti has five of them – two with AC Milan, three with Real Madrid. Pep Guardiola sits one behind with four, spread across Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. The game has mattered enough for serial winners to collect them.

Ancelotti’s third came at Emery’s expense in 2014. Another reminder.

The debate over importance will go on, but the people involved this week are not shrugging it off. PSG’s Vitinha, already a four-time Ligue 1 champion, dismissed any idea that a back-to-back Champions League-winning side treat this as an exhibition, even as 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 midfielder said.

Defender Marquinhos echoed the message. PSG, who were unhappy enough with the size of their dressing room at Red Bull Arena that Uefa provided an additional one, are not here to pose for photos.

“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.”

A quarter-final that still lingers

This is not just a Super Cup. It’s a rerun of one of last season’s most gripping ties.

Villa and PSG met in the Champions League quarter-final in 2024-25. On paper, it looked like a mismatch. On the pitch, it turned into a statement.

PSG won the first leg 3-1 at Parc des Princes and then surged into a 2-0 lead in Birmingham, 5-1 up on aggregate and apparently cruising. Villa were staring at humiliation.

Then the game flipped.

Emery’s side roared back, turning 2-0 down into a 3-2 win on the night. They went out 5-4 on aggregate, but they had PSG rattled and Europe’s elite suddenly paying attention. It was one of the clearest signs yet that Emery had turned Villa into a team capable of going toe-to-toe with the continent’s best.

Vitinha hasn’t 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

Only 484 days have passed since that quarter-final second leg. The Villa side that walks out in Salzburg will look nothing like the one that pushed PSG to the brink.

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.

World Cup winners and mainstays Emi Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins have not travelled, Emery granting them a month off after their summer exertions.

The result? There is a realistic chance only four of the starters from that famous night against PSG will start this time. Five of the substitutes from that game have already moved on.

For a side that has felt so stable and so clearly defined under Emery, that level of change is jarring.

“A lot has changed in the eight years I’ve been here,” McGinn admitted. “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 in Salzburg: a rebuilt squad, the same demanding manager, and a chance to test themselves again against a superclub they so nearly toppled.

Emery has conquered Europe’s second tier time and again. On Wednesday, in the shadow of the Alps, he gets another crack at a trophy that refuses to bend. Is this where Aston Villa’s next step – and his own – finally takes shape?