Unai Emery Pursues UEFA Super Cup Glory with Aston Villa

Unai Emery has built an empire in a competition many coaches barely understand. Five Europa League titles, the latest with Aston Villa in May, have turned him into the modern master of knockout football. Freiburg were the latest to fall, beaten in Istanbul as Villa ended a 30-year wait for silverware.

Yet a smaller, shinier piece of metal keeps slipping from his grasp.

On Wednesday night in Salzburg, Emery goes after the UEFA Super Cup for a fourth time, as Villa face Champions League winners Paris St-Germain. For a man who measures himself in trophies, this is unfinished business.

The one gap on a crowded CV

Emery’s Europa League record is legendary. His Super Cup history is not.

Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea. Three finals, three defeats. Cristiano Ronaldo sank his Sevilla side in 2014. A year later, Lionel Messi dragged Barcelona through a wild 5-4 extra-time epic. In 2021, with Villarreal, he went all the way to penalties in Dublin before Chelsea finally broke him.

Sevilla’s 2016 defeat to Real came after he had already left for PSG, another missed opportunity in a competition that refuses to bend to him.

This is why Salzburg matters. Not for the size of the trophy, but for what it represents to a coach who obsesses over details and milestones. Last season he spoke openly about wanting third place in the Premier League because he had not done it with Villa. They finished fourth. A triumph for the club, but not quite enough for the perfectionist in the dugout.

The Super Cup sits in the same category. Not essential. But irritatingly out of reach.

“He was reminding me last week,” Emery said, nodding towards captain John McGinn as he recalled that shootout defeat to Chelsea. This one, he knows, is a chance to change the narrative. “A trophy is something that can give us a special moment. To play for trophies is, as a professional, our objective.”

Friendly in name, edge in reality

The Super Cup has always sat awkwardly on the calendar. Like the Community Shield, it is often dismissed as a glamorous pre-season tune-up, a trophy with an asterisk. The players don’t always talk about it that way.

Carlo Ancelotti has five of them – two with AC Milan, three with Real Madrid. Pep Guardiola has four. Men who collect trophies like habits rarely treat any of them lightly. Emery knows that better than most; Ancelotti’s Madrid beat his Sevilla in 2014 on their way to one of those five.

At Red Bull Arena, against his former club and in front of 6,000 travelling Villa supporters, the stage is set for another tilt. PSG arrive as back-to-back Champions League winners, a superclub that has finally matched its domestic dominance with European authority.

Vitinha, a four-time Ligue 1 champion, brushed aside any suggestion that PSG might coast through this.

“We’re still hungry for victories, trophies. It’s very difficult to maintain those levels but we’re still hungry,” the Portugal midfielder said, while admitting their pre-season “was a little short”.

Marquinhos, the long-serving defender, struck the same tone. PSG, who were unhappy enough with the size of their dressing room in Salzburg that UEFA handed them an extra one, are not here on a sightseeing trip.

“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.”

For Emery, that hunger is the point. “PSG are the favourites,” he said, but you could hear the challenge in his voice. How close can Villa push them this time?

Memories of a near-miracle

These two know each other’s scars.

The Super Cup is a rerun of last season’s Champions League quarter-final, a tie that veered from humiliation to near-heroic for Villa. They left Parc des Princes 3-1 down and then watched the aggregate scoreline swell to 5-1 in Birmingham. At that stage, it looked like a lesson from the elite.

Then Villa erupted.

From 2-0 down on the night, they tore into PSG, turned the tempo up and hauled themselves to a 3-2 win. They still went out 5-4 on aggregate, but the comeback jolted Europe’s perception of them. This was no longer a plucky Premier League story. This was a team that could scare the aristocrats.

“It was such a difficult test, especially the second half,” Vitinha admitted. The memory lingers in that PSG dressing room. The respect does too. “We’ll be ready but we’re conscious of how difficult it’s going to be.”

For Emery, that tie was a marker. Proof that his Villa could live in this company, not just visit it.

A new-look Villa, same hard edge

The twist in Salzburg is that Villa will look nothing like the side that pushed PSG so close just 484 days ago.

The churn has been sharp. Morgan Rogers, Lucas Digne and Youri Tielemans have gone. Amadou Onana is out until next year. Boubacar Kamara is only just back in a squad after a serious knee injury in January and is still feeling his way into rhythm.

Emi Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins have not even travelled. After World Cup duty, Emery handed them a month off. It is a pragmatic call, but it strips away Villa’s spine.

The result? There is a real chance only four of the starters from that quarter-final will begin in Austria. Five of the substitutes from that night have also moved on. For a team that has felt settled and methodical under Emery, this is a jolt.

McGinn has seen the evolution up close.

“A lot has changed in the eight years I’ve been here,” the captain said. When Villa now sign “the best young English talent” and see their players shine at the highest level, interest follows. That is the cost of success.

Yet inside the club, he insists, the foundations hold. “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. It will not define PSG’s either. But for a coach who has built his reputation on navigating European nights, this is a chance to finally crack the one code that keeps resisting him.

If he can do it with a reshaped, slightly patched-up Villa against the most lavish squad on the continent, the question will not be whether the Super Cup really matters.

The question will be how far this “new Aston Villa” can push the ceiling next.