PSG seal Super Cup win over Aston Villa as Somalian finally referees

Paris Saint-Germain retained the UEFA Super Cup with a 2-1 win over Aston Villa in Salzburg, Austria, on Wednesday, adding another trophy to their back-to-back Champions League triumphs.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia opened the scoring after 20 minutes, cutting into the Villa box past Matty Cash and firing beyond goalkeeper Marco Bizot.

Villa’s 17-year-old debutant Brian Madjo then became the Super Cup’s youngest goalscorer, volleying in a John McGinn cross on the stroke of half-time after earlier wasting two headed chances and striking the post with a shot.

In the second half, Madjo again threatened before McGinn’s effort was saved by PSG keeper Matvey Safonov.

PSG, who needed penalties to beat Tottenham in last season’s Super Cup, found their winner on the hour when Désiré Doué ran onto an Ousmane Dembélé pass over the top, cut inside and finished past Bizot.

The goal was initially ruled out for offside, but a VAR review confirmed Doué had been played onside, to the dismay of Villa’s tiring players.

Luis Enrique thus celebrated a ‘European double-double,’ with PSG becoming only the third club to retain the Super Cup after AC Milan in 1990 and Real Madrid in 2017.

Unai Emery, who guided Villa to the Europa League title against Freiburg in May and is a five-time Europa League winner, suffered his fourth defeat in four Super Cup attempts. Villa, already weakened by the sales of Morgan Rogers and Youri Tielemans and the absence of World Cup trio Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa and Emi Martinez, were always up against it.

The match also made history off the pitch, as Somali referee Omar Artan became the first non-European official to take charge of a UEFA Super Cup, months after being denied entry to the United States for World Cup duties despite holding a valid visa.

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