PSG 2-1 Aston Villa: Désiré Doué Strikes as Paris Retain the Super Cup
For a few seconds inside the Red Bull Arena, nobody in red and blue dared celebrate. Désiré Doué had swept the ball home only for the flag to go up, and Salzburg held its breath through the VAR check. Then the decision came: onside. The winner stood, and PSG had retained the UEFA Super Cup with a 2-1 victory over Aston Villa on Wednesday night.
It means Les Parisiens begin 2026-27 exactly as they finished the last two campaigns: lifting a trophy. A year on from beating Tottenham on penalties in this fixture, Luis Enrique’s back-to-back Champions League winners have a second consecutive Super Cup, and they earned it the hard way, seeing off a spirited Villa side and a fearless 17-year-old debutant.
How the Super Cup was won
Luis Enrique sprang a surprise with his team sheet, handing new signing Maghnes Akliouche a first competitive start in attack while Ousmane Dembélé began on the bench. Any worries from a disrupted build-up — the coach had described preparing without his World Cup stars as “surreal” — eased when Khvicha Kvaratskhelia smashed Paris in front with a finish of trademark ferocity.
Villa refused to fold, though, and hauled themselves level before Doué restored the lead in the second half. The forward’s effort was initially ruled out for offside, but the VAR review found in his favour, and Paris managed the closing stages with the calm of a team for whom finals have become routine. As our Super Cup preview noted, Unai Emery’s side arrived with genuine belief, and they pushed the European champions all the way to the final whistle.
The Madjo moment that briefly worried Paris
The equaliser belonged to Brian Madjo, a 17-year-old making his Villa debut after one of the summer’s strangest sagas. As BBC Sport reported, the £10m signing from Metz waited 212 days for competitive action while Villa contested FIFA’s registration rules, only winning their appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport at the start of this month. With Ollie Watkins rested after World Cup duty, Emery threw the teenager in against the European champions, and BBC pundit Nedum Onuoha hailed the striker’s “excellent composure” after he punished Paris with the leveller. PSG’s defence will not meet many braver debutants this season.
More silverware, and a message
Trophies have become the baseline under Luis Enrique, and this one arrived before the Ligue 1 title defence has even kicked off. As our 2026-27 season preview set out, the ambition in Paris is a third straight Champions League, and with Akliouche and Lucas Digne now folded into a squad captained by Marquinhos, the depth looks built for another long campaign on every front.
Twelve months ago it was Tottenham; this time it was Doué who made the difference on Europe’s opening night. However the season unfolds from here, Paris’s big-game specialist has already handed supporters the first silverware of 2026-27 — and the sense that plenty more is coming to the Parc.
