Emery chases first Super Cup - but does it matter?
Unai Emery is the king of the Europa League. He won a fifth title with Aston Villa in May - their win over Freiburg in Istanbul ending a 30-year trophy drought - but the Super Cup has eluded him. O…
He won a fifth title with Aston Villa in May - their win over Freiburg in Istanbul ending a 30-year trophy drought - but the Super Cup has eluded him.
On Wednesday in Salzburg Emery tries for a fourth time to win the competition, when Villa face Champions League winners Paris St-Germain.
Last season Emery declared he wanted to seal third place in the Premier League because he had not achieved it with Villa.
Finishing fourth was not a failure but it will have rankled with perfectionist Emery.
It will be the same with the Super Cup, but is the competition a glorified friendly or does it really matter?
Emery has suffered defeats by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea - the first two with Sevilla, and then losing on penalties to the Blues in Dublin with Villarreal in 2021.
A 5-4 extra-time loss to a Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona in 2015 came a year after Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to earn Real Madrid the trophy.
Emery had already left for PSG by the time Sevilla lost the 2016 Super Cup to Real.
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