Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain were crowned the best team in Europe after beating Aston Villa 2-1 in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Super Cup yesterday.
PSG are defending their title they won 12 months ago against another Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur, writes AFP. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue scored either side of a debut goal for Villa teenager Brian Madjo in Salzburg.
The Super Cup, between the winners of Europe’s premier club competition and the winners of the Europa League, was controlled by Somalian referee Omar Artan.
The 34-year-old referee was unknowingly in the media limelight in June when he was turned away on arrival at Miami International Airport despite being part of the panel of officials selected by FIFA for the World Cup.
Both sides fielded fairly strong sides ahead of the commencement of their respective domestic seasons.
PSG’s starting XI had nine players that raised the Champions League trophy against Arsenal in May, including Vitinha, Joao Neves and captain Marquinhos.
French left-back Lucas Digne, who joined the Parisians on Sunday, was on the bench against his former club.
Villa did not include World Cup players Ezri Konsa, Emi Martinez and Ollie Watkins but Unai Emery gave debuts to midfielder Joao Gomes and forward Madjo.
Boubacar Kamara also had his first start after a catastrophic knee injury in January in midfield.
Kamara was closest to breaking the deadlock with a low effort from distance in the 13th minute which Matvey Safonov watched by his post.
This woke PSG up and Marco Bizot had to parry an effort on goal but the French side recycled the ball to Kvaratskhelia down the left who cut in on 20 minutes and scored with a piledriver at the near post.
Minutes later the Georgian was running amok in the Villa defence, this time setting up left-back Nuno Mendes whose cut-back inexplicably missed his charging team-mates.
But Villa held firm and should have been level just before the half hour when Madjo flicked wide a John McGinn cross.
The 17-year-old watched a couple more golden chances go begging as it looked like Emery’s men would go in at the interval down.
But Madjo had his due desserts when Scottish veteran McGinn picked him out again in the box in the 45th minute and this time he smashed the ball with his left boot into the roof of the PSG net.
Emery reacted to the change of fortune by introducing Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele for new PSG signing Maghnes Akliouche at the interval.
But Villa continued in the same vein after the break, with Madjo and McGinn combining well again, the latter forcing Safonov to turn around a wonderful curler.
Desire Doue, who plays for France, sprinted down the right and curled the ball into the net at Villa on minute 61, although he was first denied by the assistant’s flag.
VAR intervened however and ruled that Villa right-back Matty Cash on the far side of the pitch was playing the PSG winger onside and awarded the goal, to the astonishment and delight of Doue.
Premier League side had an opportunity to hit back straight away thru 19-year-old George Hemmings but Safonov stood firm to maintain the score at 2-1.
Then Warren Zaire-Emery had to throw himself in the way of a Gomes effort.
Luis Enrique introduced World Cup winner Fabian Ruiz a quarter of an hour from time to help firm up the center of the pitch for PSG as Villa looked for a leveller.
Their greatest opportunity came in the last 10 minutes when Tammy Abraham was just unable to reach Alysson’s cut-back inside the six-yard box. Qatar-backed Ligue 1 champions PSG held on for a winning start to their new season, which they hope would culminate with a third straight Champions League triumph.
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