Key events
55 min: Doué nicks the ball off Maatsen and enters the box from the right, but runs straight into his own man Hakimi. The pair confuse each other, and Villa clear.
54 min: This scoreline shouldn’t be a surprise. Up to this point, Villa have had 11 attempts to PSG’s four. And that number stays at four, as Neves caresses a pass down the inside left for Dembele, who enters the box but loses control before he can shoot. That was a big chance.
53 min: The Villa fans are in good voice. Their heroes hold their shape on the field, as PSG pass and probe.
51 min: Torres is booked for clattering into the back of Doué.
50 min: Buendia releases Madjo into space down the middle. Madjo drives upfield before rolling a pass to McGinn, who opens his body and curls towards the left. Safonov claims. Madjo continuing to announce himself on the big stage. “Gudden owend from Beggen in the Grand Duchy,” begins Andrew Drinkwater. “Please make sure you call him Luxembourg’s Brian Madjo: we know he’s gone and isn’t coming back, but at least until he gets his first competitive England call, he’s a Luxembourg international.”
48 min: Doué drives in from the right and goes over upon entering the box. He wants a penalty, but there was no illegal contact from Hemmings, who simply stood his ground.
47 min: A slow start to the second half, so here’s a reminder that, should things stay level, there’s no extra time. It’ll be straight to pens. “No way is that kid 17,” splutters a disbelieving Tim Smith. “That implies he’s still growing. Frightening. He just tossed Pacho about like a rag doll on a couple of occasions. Very nice finish.”
Villa get the second half started. PSG have made one change, sending on Dembélé for the debutant Akliouche. This is now the team that started the Champions League final for PSG, with one exception … and Fabián Ruiz is on the bench, ready to make it a full 11 out of 11.
Half-time postbag. “I thought about emailing something insightful about the actual game, but then thought well, why break the habit of a lifetime, this is the MBM after all, I’m on holiday and have been drinking whisky for four weeks solid, and DUNDEE UNITED ARE PLAYING CELTIC AT TANNADICE on Saturday in the Scottish League Cup, and there was a solar eclipse here tonight, the first since 1999, and it got slightly dark for a few minutes, so I think we all know what that means. John McGinn though, eh? If I could have one player at Tannadice, I think that’s who I’d choose. Come on Scotland United Villa!” – Simon McMahon
“Five million euros for the winners, and four million for the losers. Not a lot of difference there. Maybe the Uefa coefficient points make up for it, but who understands them?” – Andrew Goudie
“Here, where’s the hydration break? I need a cup of tea and there are surely one or two Villa defenders who need their twisted blood changed after Kvaratskhelia’s hi-jinks” – Justin Kavanagh
“The last time I was in Salzburg I remember standing in a cobblestoned plaza enjoying a juicy sausage with oozing cheese filling (it tastes better than it sounds), a soft, buttery cinnamon pretzel and a cold glass of Stiegl. Good times” – Peter Oh
HALF TIME: PSG 1-1 Aston Villa
That was great fun! Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is very much already a star; Brian Madjo is in danger of becoming one in short order.
45 min +2: McGinn dances his way down the right, reaching the byline and cutting back, the ball somehow evading everyone in washed-out blue. PSG are suddenly all over the place!
45 min +1: Madjo has been a handful since the get-go, and now he’s got his reward. Did he let his head drop after missing those good chances? Did he heck as like! And now at 17 he’s the youngest ever scorer in a Super Cup final, by a good couple of years. Patrick Kluivert, since you ask.
GOAL! PSG 1-1 Aston Villa (Madjo 45)
Madjo’s got his goal now! Having missed three good chances, he ripples the net with number four! McGinn crosses from the right. Long. Madjo, wrestling with Pacho on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box, sticks out a leg and forcefully guides a shot into the top left from a tight angle! What a finish! A star in the making here!
44 min: Madjo is a prospect all right. Buendia dinks a cute reverse pass down the inside-left channel for the big young man, who enters the box, brushing off Pacho with slapstick disdain. He hammers a shot from a tight angle off the left-hand post and out for a corner. Somewhere in the multiverse, Madjo already has a hat-trick!
43 min: McGinn is bowled over by Neves on the right. He takes the free kick himself. Madjo once again makes a nuisance of himself. The ball bounces around in the PSG six-yard box. Kamara, Torres and Lindelof fail to get into a position to nudge the ball goalward, and Safonov eventually claims amid a melee.
41 min: Doué gifts possession to Buendia with a slack pass in midfield. Buendia advances on the PSG box and prepares to shoot, only for Kvaratskhelia to arrive and nick the ball away. The ball breaks left to Madjo, whose snapshot is deflected wide left. From the corner, the ball’s worked to McGinn on the right. McGinn crosses long, and Madjo heads wide from a couple of yards. He should have scored. But he looks a real presence.
39 min: Kvaratskhelia wanders over to the right and is nearly sent skittering clear along the white line by Akliouche. The ball dribbles out of play, just in time from Villa’s perspective. Kvaratskhelia is utterly irrepressible.
37 min: Hats off to Hemmings for cocking a snook to cynicism there. He’ll learn, of course. It’d have been the softest of penalties, mind.
35 min: Mendes takes too long over a throw and the ball’s turned over to Villa, who break upfield. Madjo slips a ball down the left for Hemmings, who barrels down the channel and reaches the box. Before he can shoot, he feels Hakimi on his back. He stumbles, and a more long-in-the-tooth player might go over, but the young man stays on his feet. The opportunity to shoot is gone, but he cuts back for Madjo, who curls a decent effort across Safonov and wide right.
33 min: Doué loops a long pass down the right for Hakimi to chase. For a second, Hakimi threatens to break into the box, but Maatsen sticks to his shoulder like glue, and eventually strips him of possession.
31 min: Cash throws in long from the right. Hemmings has a whack from the edge of the box. His effort is blocked by Pacho. Unai Emery won’t be enjoying the scoreline, but he’ll be happy enough with the performance so far of his two young lads, Hemmings and Madjo.
29 min: Kvaratskhelia twists Lindelof’s blood down the left and lob-wedges into the centre. Maatsen does very well to chest back to Bizot. Kvaratskhelia is a total menace. So much fun to watch. What a player.
28 min: … and after all that, Villa could easily be level! McGinn curls in from the right for Madjo, who glances a header wide left from eight yards. Safonov was beaten all ends up. This won’t end 1-0. It can’t. Surely it can’t.
26 min: Mendes is released down the left with a wave of Kvaratskhelia’s wand. A reverse pass played with gentle disdain. Mendes enters the Villa box and crosses low, but the ball somehow evades all three of Hakimi, Zaire-Emery and Akliouche. Not sure how that was physically possible, but Villa have got away with one big-time.
24 min: Kvaratskhelia is clearly in the mood, and now he dances into the Villa box from the left, past Cash again with ease. Gomes comes in to nick the ball, but makes light contact with Kvaratskhelia from behind, the winger going over. He wants a penalty, and you’ve seen them given … but he’s not getting this one.
23 min: The free kick’s rolled infield for Mendes, who drags a low drive wide right.
22 min: Doué sashays down the inside-right channel and draws a clumsy foul from Gomes. A free kick, 30 yards out. Villa suddenly on the ropes.
GOAL! PSG 1-0 Aston Villa (Kvaratskhelia 20)
Kvaratskhelia jinks in from the left, toes a-twinkle, before cutting back for Doué, who shoots through a crowded box. Bizot claws out but Villa don’t clear the loose ball properly, and Kvaratskhelia advances down the left again. He enters the box, ghosts past Cash on the inside, and powers a shot into the roof of the net from 12 yards. Kind of straight at Bizot, but hit with such power, the keeper had no chance!
19 min: Hemmings and Maatsen pair up to hunt down Hakimi, and steal off with the ball. Hemmings tries to release Madjo down the left, but his radar is way off. Safonov wanders over to reclaim possession for PSG.
17 min: Buendia’s cute flick finds Madjo in space, 30 yards out. Madjo tries to return the ball with a shovelled pass down the inside left, but it’s nowhere near Buendia and PSG clear their lines. McGinn tries to revive the attack with a probe down the right, but ends up walking the ball out for a goal kick.
15 min: It’s been a reasonably open and entertaining start, even if neither keeper has had any serious work to do yet.
13 min: Kamara is given too much time and space, 30 yards out. He advances slowly towards the PSG box before threading a low shot wide left. Had that been on target, it might well have gone in, because while Camara didn’t exactly cream it, Safonov seemed to react very late. Not 100 percent sure he was getting there.
11 min: Vitinha tries his luck from the best part of 30 yards, and sends his shot a similar distance over the bar.
10 min: Doué gently wedges a pass down the inside-right channel for Hakimi, who takes the ball in his stride and bursts towards the Villa box. For a second he looks clear, and prepares to take a shot, but Maatsen catches up and closes down the angle. Gorgeous ball forward by Doué.
8 min: Kvaratskhelia instigates a one-two with Akliouche down the left. His ping infield is perfect; the ball coming back to him is not. Villa mop up and counter through Buendia, who attempts to find Hemmings in space down the inside-left channel. The pass is too strong.
6 min: So after that initial back-and-forth, the pace drops. A World Cup hangover already?! Speaking of which … “As a lover of ye olde wingers, I thought the World Cup was all the poorer for Kvaratskhelia’s absence,” begins Justin Kavanagh. “While Dembele and Elise lit up a couple of the France games, and Anthony Gordon played well in patches, no-one quite set the pulse racing by skinning his full-back in the semis or the final. The heat, maybe, and the higher quality defending by teams at that stage, but still, imagine Kvaratskhelia in a Spanish shirt in the final; he’d probably have given us a final to remember.”
4 min: Maatsen dribbles hard down the left and wins the first corner of the game. Neves clears easily enough. But that’s a confident response by Villa to PSG’s early statement of intent.
3 min: Hemmings is skittled by Zaire-Emery out on the left. The free kick’s hoisted into the PSG box, big Madjo competing for it. Hakimi clears.
2 min: PSG hog the ball in the very early stages. They are the European champions, after all. “Doesn’t this match already have a winner even before a ball is kicked?” asks krishnamoorthy v. “All hail Omar Artan! Uefa sticking a tongue out to Donald ‘catering truck’ Trump and showing a middle finger to Gianni ‘glued to the chair’ Infantino.”
PSG get the ball rolling. Or rather sailing, as they hoof it into the stand, rugby style, as is their wont. “I’m glad that Omar Artan will get a chance to do what he does best, after being denied entry to the GWC,” writes Peter Oh. “Never mind the ‘104 Super Bowls’, here comes the Super Cup!”
The teams are out! PSG in their first-choice blue and red, Villa in a very light blue that’s almost white, which, it says here, “pays rich tribute to the famous stadium’s Holte End, drawing inspiration from the iconic mosaic that greets loyal fans as they file into the stand.” We’ll be off in a minute!
It’s also a big night for the referee, who was royally stitched up by the Trump-Infantino Clown Collective at this summer’s World Cup. Here’s hoping 34-year-old Somali official Omar Artan enjoys the big showpiece he so richly deserves after being put through all that.
This is Europa League specialist Unai Emery’s fourth appearance at the Super Cup – he’s previously been a runner-up with Sevilla in 2014 and 2015 and Villarreal in 2021 – and ahead of it, he’s been talking to BT Sport. “Good evening … we are motivated and excited … we are playing the best team … we have some young players … but we are ready … the players are going to compete fantastically … we are playing for a trophy and our supporters … we are going to be 100 percent focused on this match … but we are trying to get ready, in our best moment, for the season.”
The view up above has been nearly as spectacular as PSG’s pennant. This here solar eclipse, you see. This is how beautiful the sky above Stadion Salzburg looked tonight …
… and here’s how the eclipse was safely viewed on the jumbo screen.
Say what you will about PSG’s funding model and its effect on continental competition: these guys always give good pennant. You have to give them that.
So how did we get here? Aston Villa fans won’t need reminding, not after their greatest night since Rotterdam ‘82 …
… while PSG retained their continental crown on an evening Arsenal fans would rather forget.
Aston Villa name two debutants in their XI. João Gomes, their £38m purchase from Wolves, starts in the centre of midfield, while 17-year-old Brian Madjo – at six feet four, officially a big unit – leads the line.
PSG also have a shiny new thing in their starting line-up: Maghnes Akliouche, a £43m buy from Monaco, prepares to cause havoc on the right wing. Lucas Digne, freshly arrived from Villa, sits in the dugout awaiting his debut. Bradley Barcola, coveted by both Liverpool and Arsenal, is also on the bench.
The teams
Paris Saint-Germain: Safonov, Marquinhos, Hakimi, Nuno Mendes, Pacho, Vitinha, Zaire-Emery, Neves, Kvaratskhelia, Akliouche, Doue.
Subs: Chevalier, Digne, Hernandez, Zabarnyi, Lucas Beraldo, Fabian, Mayulu, Fernandez, Dembele, Barcola, Mbaye, Ndjantou.
Aston Villa: Bizot, Lindelof, Cash, Torres, Maatsen, McGinn, Buendia, Kamara, Joao Gomes, Hemmings, Madjo.
Subs: Wright, Asemota, Mings, Rowe, Nedeljkovic, Modou Cisse, Barkley, Bogarde, Burrowes, Abraham, Edward, Lynch.
Referee: Omar Artan (Somalia).
Preamble
Aston Villa already have the Super Cup on their roll of honour, of course. Gather round, dear children, and hear tell of a time in which FC Barcelona were less renowned for their Cruyffian devotion to the beautiful game, more interested in toe-punting whoever so much as looked at them all around the shop with great vim and vigour.
The modern-day artistes of Paris Saint-Germain are unlikely to resort to such base hoodlummery this evening. That said, they’ve already thrown a toddler’s tanty over the size of their dressing room, so let’s rule nothing out. Will the European champions put Villa to the sword, just as they did Spurs this time last year? Or will Unai Emery fill an odd gap on his personal resumé, finally converting Europa League glory into Super Cup success at the nth time of asking? We find out soon! Kick-off in Salzburg is at 8pm BST. It’s on!