Aston Villa play their first Uefa Super Cup since 1982 on Wednesday night, and the opponent is the one club in Europe able to measure precisely how much the team in front of them has changed. Paris St-Germain, back-to-back Champions League winners and the holders of this trophy after beating Tottenham on penalties last year, last faced Villa 484 days ago in a Champions League quarter-final that Villa came within one goal of dragging to extra time.
Kick-off at Salzburg's Red Bull Arena is at 20:00 BST, with 6,000 Villa supporters travelling to a 30,000-capacity ground whose facade has been covered with images of their Europa League celebrations in Istanbul. The referee is Omar Artan, named Caf men's referee of the year in 2025, who had been in line to become the first Somali official at a World Cup finals until border officials in Miami turned him away despite his diplomatic passport and single-entry US visa. Uefa appointed him after discussions with the Confederation of African Football.
The tie that made Villa's name
PSG won the first leg in Paris 3-1 and were two goals up inside the opening stages at Villa Park, which put the tie at 5-1 on aggregate. Villa then scored three times in 23 minutes, two of them within two minutes of each other, through a deflected Youri Tielemans strike, a solo run and finish from John McGinn and an Ezri Konsa goal. They won the night 3-2 and went out 5-4. Gianluigi Donnarumma made three saves late on to stop Villa forcing extra time, and Unai Emery ended the match on all fours after Willian Pacho blocked a goal-bound Ian Maatsen volley with 28 seconds to play.