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Luis Enrique says it doesn’t matter what sport he is playing – football, tennis, padel or parchis, a board game – he wants to win every game, all the time. In Paris Saint-Germain, he has built a winning machine, the back-to-back Champions League victors maintaining their habit by conquering Aston Villa in an absorbing Super Cup contest in Salzburg. For PSG, after the joy of Munich and Budapest, three months ago, does a three-peat in Madrid in May beckon? They will surely go close.
Aston Villa more than played their part in an enthralling showpiece, Brian Madjo becoming the competition’s youngest scorer after the 17-year-old cancelled out Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s opener. Villa had chances to gain the lead but Désiré Doué was the match-winner, the forward picking his spot after beating Villa’s offside trap. The goal was initially disallowed but, after a VAR review, Omar Artan, the Somali referee handed the game by Uefa after being denied entry to the US to officiate at the World Cup, awarded it after replays showed Matty Cash played Doué onside.
Before kick-off, the sights and sounds were in effect an extension of Villa’s victory in Istanbul, a party atmosphere raining down from the 6,000-strong Villa following. There were huge cheers when Unai Emery’s face appeared on the big screens in opposite corners after the teams were read aloud and hearty roars for the £38m arrival João Gomes and Madjo, the hulking forward handed his full Villa debut. Madjo’s inclusion felt particularly ominous for Tammy Abraham, the striker signed seven months ago, his £18.3m permanent arrival yet to pay dividends. A claret and blue mosaic formed behind Marco Bizot’s goal as Jeff Beck blared over the speakers. Villa supporters crooned to Erasure and chanted the name of their superb captain, John McGinn.
“We won’t be in our best moment,” Emery said on the eve of the game but his side were almighty fun; some good, some bad, just as he predicted. Only five players from their memorable victory over Freiburg remained in Villa’s XI, though Emi Martínez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins are still on holiday. Boubacar Kamara made his first start since sustaining a serious knee injury against Tottenham in January.
Emery could also finally unleash Madjo in a competitive game for the first time since his £10m arrival from Metz in January, Villa winning an appeal at the court of arbitration (Cas) to register him after Fifa prohibited him from playing. Only João Pedro, for Chelsea, had scored more goals in pre-season than Madjo but his equaliser here was on the grandest stage yet after goals against Walsall, Real Sociedad and Indonesia All Stars. Here was Madjo against Willian Pacho and Marquinhos, the PSG captain and one of the most decorated defenders in the world.
Kamara drilled wide in search of the opener but PSG seized the lead on 20 minutes through Kvaratskhelia, who had the summer off with Georgia failing to reach the World Cup. Madjo’s clunky control allowed Vitinha to take hold of the ball and pass the baton on to Désiré Doué. Then Kvaratskhelia took charge, jinking inside Matty Cash and blasting his shot into the top left-hand corner at Bizot’s near post. Kvaratskhelia blew a kiss down the lens of the nearest television camera. Six minutes later, it should have been 2-0 after more Kvaratskhelia brilliance, but PSG could not apply the finishing touch. Nuno Mendes galloped on to Kvaratskhelia’s flipped pass down the left flank but the Portugal defender’s cutback evaded four red and blue shirts.
A couple of minutes later came the first of Madjo’s hat-trick of chances from McGinn’s cunning crosses before the teenager levelled. Madjo glanced at a replay after misdirecting a free header and then overcooked a shot when looking for the far corner after George Hemmings got the better of Achraf Hakimi. Another flunked header followed when McGinn twirled clear of Kvaratskhelia. With the half-time whistle looming, Madjo made amends, dispatching a left-footed volley into the roof of Matvey Safonov’s goal after meeting another brilliant cross from McGinn. As McGinn’s flighted ball flew towards the back post, Pacho clung to Madjo for dear life, but Madjo kept him at arm’s length to ripple the net.
Ousmane Dembélé replaced Maghnes Akliouche, a £43m buy from Monaco, at half-time, leaving PSG only shy of Fabián Ruiz from the starting lineup that overcame Arsenal in Budapest in May; the Spanish World Cup winner later replaced João Neves. But it was Villa who registered the first chance of the second half, McGinn working Safonov after Madjo cleverly spread play. A few minutes later, Neves released Dembélé but the France forward ran out of road, allowing Bizot to intervene.
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PSG would regain the lead just after the hour when another pass from Dembélé unlocked Villa’s defence, exposing an imperfect offside line. Dembélé zipped a pass into the right channel and, while Ian Maatsen and Pau Torres raised their hands and Doué’s goal was initially ruled out, semi-automated offside exposed Cash.
Villa still had chances to level. Warren Zaïre-Emery’s extraordinary block prevented Gomes from a near-certain debut goal. Safonov repelled a Hemmings strike and the substitutes Alysson and Abraham almost combined to devastating effect but Abraham did not gamble in the box, much to Emery’s frustration. Perhaps Villa will, as McGinn suggested, prove everybody wrong – again.
