Aston Villa Face PSG in UEFA Super Cup Without Key Players — Again
Aston Villa face Paris Saint-Germain in Wednesday's UEFA Super Cup in Salzburg, but the side that takes the pitch will look nothing like the one that nearly shook Europe last spring.
The match, kicking off at 21:00 CET at Stadion Salzburg, is the 51st edition of the Super Cup — the traditional season-opening contest between the Champions League winners and the Europa League winners (UEFA). PSG earned their place by lifting the Champions League; Villa qualified by winning the Europa League. It is only the second time in the club's history that Villa have featured in this competition (Aston Villa).
The fixture renews a rivalry that produced one of last season's most dramatic ties. In the 2024-25 Champions League quarter-final, Villa trailed 3-1 from the first leg in Paris and then fell 5-1 behind on aggregate — the combined score across both legs — before winning the second leg 3-2 at Villa Park and bowing out 5-4 on aggregate (BBC Sport). Close, but not close enough.
Now Villa return to face the same opposition stripped of several pillars of that run. Emi Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins did not travel to Austria after playing at the World Cup, with manager Unai Emery granting them a month off (BBC Sport). Midfielder Amadou Onana is out injured until next year. Boubacar Kamara is in the squad but only just returning from a serious knee injury suffered in January. The club also sold Morgan Rogers, Lucas Digne and Youri Tielemans before the Super Cup.
That is a starting goalkeeper, a first-choice centre-back, a leading striker, and three outfield regulars all absent. For a club preparing for the first trophy of the new European season, the timing is far from ideal. Villa's final warm-up — a narrow friendly defeat to Bayern Munich on 7 August — offered little reassurance (UEFA).
What makes this stand out is not just the absentees but who is left to carry the weight. John McGinn, the club captain now in his eighth year at Villa, becomes the obvious leader on the pitch. A midfielder who combines technical security with an old-fashioned appetite for a tackle, McGinn will need to marshal a reshaped side against the team that ended their European dream four months ago.
Villa will at least take the field in fresh colours. The club confirmed they will wear their all-new 2026/27 third kit for the match (Aston Villa).
For PSG, the Super Cup is a chance to assert domestic-and-continental dominance. For Villa, it is something stranger: a reunion they did not ask for, against the club that knocked them out, with half the cast changed. The first trophy of the season is on the line. So is the question of how much of last spring's spirit survives the summer.
