RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Paris Saint-Germain eclipsed Aston Villa as the back-to-back Champions League winners claimed the UEFA Super Cup with a 2-1 victory over the Europa League victors in Salzburg on Wednesday.
Villa teenager Brian Madjo scored a glorious debut equalizer to cancel out Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s opening goal.
But Désiré Doué's winner meant Luis Enrique was able to celebrate a European double-double, with PSG becoming only the third club to retain the trophy after AC Milan in 1990 and Real Madrid in 2017.
Unai Emery may be the king of the Europa League after winning it for a fifth time with Villa against Freiburg in May, but the Super Cup continues to elude him.
That famous victory in Istanbul – Villa’s first trophy in 30 years – earned the Spanish boss a fourth shot at trying to win the European season-opening showpiece, but he slipped to a fourth defeat.
In truth Villa, taking on the star-studded French champions in the foothills of the Austrian Alps, always had a mountain to climb, having sold key players Morgan Rogers and Youri Tielemans and left World Cup trio Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa and Emi Martinez at home.
Shortly after the solar eclipse had cast its shadow over the Red Bull Arena, Madjo was Villa’s shining light, but it proved to be an ultimately gloomy evening for the Premier League side.
History was made as referee Omar Artan became the first non-European to officiate in the prestigious fixture, the 34-year-old Somalian having been denied entry into the United States for the World Cup two months earlier.
One PSG player not suffering a World Cup hangover was Kvaratskhelia, with the mercurial Georgian winger having had much of June and July off.
He struck after 20 minutes, gliding into the Villa box and shimmying past Matty Cash before lashing the ball past keeper Marco Bizot.
Madjo was making his Villa debut following a protracted wrangle over FIFA rules since a January move from Metz and the bustling 17-year-old could have had a hat-trick before he hauled Villa level.
He was off target twice with headers from inviting John McGinn crosses and then slipped a shot past PSG keeper Matvey Safonov only to see it crash back off the outside of the near post.
But Madjo kept on plugging away and got his reward on the stroke of half-time – with arguably his most difficult chance.
The rookie striker superbly held off Willian Pacho at the far post, sticking out a leg to volley another McGinn cross home to become the Super Cup’s youngest goalscorer.
Early in the second half Madjo threatened to burst through the PSG rearguard before laying the ball off to McGinn, whose shot was palmed away by Safonov.
PSG had needed penalties to beat Tottenham in last season’s Super Cup, but this time they won it on the hour when Doué raced on to Ousmane Dembélé’s ball over the top, cut inside and finished past Bizot.
The France wideman was initially flagged offside, but a VAR check showed he was on to the dismay of Villa’s tiring players as Les Parisiens, 74 days on from beating Arsenal on spot-kicks to win the Champions League, claimed yet another piece of silverware.
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