Soccer
Emery's Villans ready for litmus test against star-studded PSG
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Unai Emery insists Aston Villa are ready to go toe-to-toe with Paris Saint-Germain after a summer of change.
The Villans collide with the Ligue 1 titleholders and Champions League winners in the Super Cup in Salzburg this evening.
Although the Europa League holders go into the game as underdogs — and without key trio Emiliano Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins — Emery’s side are determined not to disappoint the 6,000 fans who have travelled to Austria.
He said: “A trophy is something that can give us a special moment. To play for trophies, as a professional, is our objective.
“If we are winning, of course we are happy. If we are not winning, we are not happy.
“Of course, PSG are favourites. But I am looking forward to how we can test this match, with our capacity, and with the moment we have now, with the players we have now.
“We are doing a good pre-season. We are testing and we are doing practice, trying to improve things.
“It’s very important for our careers as a coach, as players, as a club — it’s a trophy. It’s one thing that can make us proud of how we are and how we arrived here.
“We have a huge motivation to give our best — 6,000 supporters from Birmingham give us the responsibility as well to try to play for them. We are going to compete."
Despite seeing midfield stars Morgan Rogers and Youri Tielemans leave for Chelsea and Manchester United, skipper John McGinn is confident Villa can look forward to another successful season.
As well as winning the Europa League last term, Villa finished fourth in the Premier League — and McGinn, 31, believes expectations are rightly high once again for the 2026-27 campaign.
He said: "A lot has changed, but a lot has changed in the eight years that I've been here.
"When we got promoted to the Premier League [in 2019], there was a lot of change in the summer.
"When you're signing the best young English talent, there's only going to be interest in them. When your players are performing at the highest level, there's going to be interest.
"So we've got a structure in place, we've got standards and rules that have made us successful over the past few seasons.
“Our job is just to integrate the new players and try and make them believe the same way the players in the last few seasons have believed.
"The expectations? Similar to where it's been in the past few seasons. I think we've consistently competed with the best in England, I think we've consistently competed with the best in Europe no matter what the competition is.
"We will have our challenges, there's a lot of change, but when you look at other clubs around England there's a lot of changes there as well.
"A lot of coaches are changing, a lot of players are changing, but what we have still is our main core — the same manager, the same methods, the same desire to achieve more.
"A lot of people thought we'd reached our ceiling a couple of seasons ago and we proved them wrong.
"We've still got the same hunger and desire to go and achieve more. As long as we've got the hunger and desire to do that you can expect as much as possible.”
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