UEFA Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain will lock horns with UEFA Europa League champions Aston Villa on Wednesday(today) in the UEFA Super Cup at StadionSalzburg in Austria.
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery says his side are entering a “new era” as they prepare to face Paris Saint-Germain in the 2026 UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday.
Villa qualified for the showpiece after winning the UEFA Europa League in May, while Paris arrive as Champions League winners, setting up a meeting between two of Europe’s most successful sides from last season.
For Emery, the fixture represents another opportunity for Aston Villa to compete for major silverware after their impressive progress since his arrival in 2022.
“I feel like the club is in a new era, with this possibility to fight for trophies,” Emery told UEFA.
The Spanish coach believes the Super Cup is about more than simply starting the season with a prestigious fixture. It provides Villa with an opportunity to measure themselves against the best and add another European trophy to their collection.
“Very important,” Emery said when asked about the importance of the match.
“We’re trying to be successful through, firstly, [building] a winning team, and then aiming for the positive consequences after it: winning trophies.
“To play the UEFA Super Cup is another opportunity to be there, the opportunity to win a trophy, to play against Paris Saint-Germain – the [best] team in the world now and another team we can compare [ourselves] with.”
Villa have already experienced the disappointment of facing Paris in Europe. The sides met in the Champions League quarter-finals last season, with Paris edging a closely contested tie 5-4 on aggregate.
That experience, however, has given Emery confidence that his team can compete with the European champions.
“In Paris, we lost 3-1, and we played a good match but we were not protagonists like in the second match,” Emery said.
“In the second leg, we exploited our potential in attack, having some really good moments to come back [in the tie] and being really dominant against the best team. In the end, we didn’t achieve it.
“To play against a team like PSG and feel that we could achieve the level they had, it was very important for our belief. We are going to try to use the same message in the dressing room and we’re going to prepare for the game thinking that we can have our chances by competing in the best way.”
Villa’s European resurgence has been rapid. Under Emery, they reached the Conference League semi-finals in 2024, progressed to the Champions League quarter-finals in 2025 and then won the Europa League.
Now they have the chance to claim another major European honour.
Villa previously won the UEFA Super Cup in 1983 against Barcelona and will be competing in the competition for only the second time. Emery, meanwhile, has previous experience of the fixture with Villarreal and Sevilla.
For Villa, Wednesday’s meeting with Paris represents another test of their growing ambitions.
“We want to just come into this second Test, not take anything for granted…”
