Doué seals Super Cup glory for PSG after Madjo makes history for Aston Villa

Luis Enrique says it doesn’t matter which sport he is playing – football, tennis, padel or parchis, a board game – he wants to win all of the time. In Paris Saint-Germain, he has built a winning machine, the back-to-back Champions League victors maintaining a useful habit by conquering Aston Villa in an absorbing Super Cup contest in Salzburg. For PSG, after the joy of Munich and Budapest, three months ago, does a three-peat in Madrid in May beckon?

Aston Villa more than played their part in an enthralling showpiece, Brian Madjo becoming the competition’s youngest scorer after the 17-year-old cancelled out Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s opener. They could have taken the game to a penalty shootout, Warren Zaïre-Emery’s extraordinary block preventing João Gomes a near-certain debut goal and Emi Buendía heading wide in stoppage time.

Villa will take plenty of encouragement from a fearless display, Désiré Doué’s well-taken winner ultimately the difference. The goal was initially disallowed but, after a VAR review, Omar Artan – the Somali referee handed the game by Uefa after being denied entry to the US to officiate at the World Cup – awarded it after replays showed Matty Cash played Doué onside.

Before kick-off, the sights and sounds were in effect an extension of Villa’s victory in Istanbul, a party atmosphere raining down from the 6,000-strong Villa following. There were huge cheers when Unai Emery’s face appeared on the big screens in opposite corners after the teams were read aloud and hearty roars for the £38m arrival Gomes and Madjo, the hulking forward who made his presence felt on his full Villa debut. Madjo’s inclusion felt particularly ominous for Tammy Abraham, the striker signed seven months ago, his £18.25m arrival yet to pay dividends.

“We won’t be in our best moment,” Emery warned on the eve of the game but, after a summer of change, the future looks bright. Emery could finally unleash Madjo in a competitive game for the first time since his £10m arrival from Metz in January, Villa winning an appeal at the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) to register him after Fifa prohibited him from playing. Chelsea’s João Pedro is the only Premier League player to have outscored Madjo in pre-season and his equaliser here was on the grandest stage yet after goals against Walsall, Real Sociedad and Indonesia All Stars. Madjo occupied Willian Pacho and Marquinhos, one of the most decorated defenders in the world. The 19-year-old George Hemmings played the full game and kept Achraf Hakimi on his toes.

Only five players from Villa’s memorable victory over Freiburg remained in the XI though Emi Martínez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins are still on holiday. Emery told Watkins to rest after the striker volunteered to play here. Boubacar Kamara made his first start since sustaining a serious knee injury against Tottenham in January. More new faces will join, with Villa in advanced talks to sign João Palhinha from Bayern Munich and the Atlético Madrid left-back Matteo Ruggeri expected to undergo a medical in the next 48 hours. “Overall we can feel proud of everything we’ve done,” Emery said. “Some changes will be needed but we are confident.”

PSG seized the lead on 20 minutes through Kvaratskhelia, who had the summer off. Madjo’s clunky control allowed Vitinha to claim the ball and locate Doué. Then Kvaratskhelia took charge, jinking inside Cash and blasting his shot in at Marco Bizot’s near post. Six minutes later, it should have been 2-0 after more Kvaratskhelia brilliance, but PSG could not apply the finishing touch. Nuno Mendes galloped on to Kvaratskhelia’s flipped pass but the full-back’s cutback from the left flank evaded the £43m summer buy Maghnes Akliouche and three other blue and red shirts.

Madjo had a hat-trick of chances from John McGinn’s cunning crosses before levelling. He glanced at the screens showing a replay of him misdirecting a free header. Then he overcooked a shot when looking for the far corner after Hemmings beat Hakimi. Another flunked header followed after McGinn twirled clear of Kvaratskhelia. But with the half-time whistle looming, Madjo made amends, dispatching a side-footed volley into the roof of Matvey Safonov’s net after meeting another brilliant cross from McGinn. As the ball flew towards the back post, Pacho clung to Madjo for dear life, but the teenager kept him at arm’s length to ripple the net.

Ousmane Dembélé replaced Akliouche at half-time. Fabián Ruiz, the only other player missing from the XI that began against Arsenal in Budapest in May, arrived late on. Villa kept hunting, McGinn working Safonov after Madjo spread play. But PSG regained the lead just after the hour when Dembélé’s pass unlocked Villa’s defence, exposing an imperfect offside line. Dembélé zipped the ball into the right channel and, while Ian Maatsen and Pau Torres raised their hands and Doué’s goal was initially ruled out, semi-automated offside exposed Cash.

Villa still had chances to level. Zaïre-Emery slid across the turf to thwart Gomes. Safonov repelled Hemmings’s strike from close range and the substitutes Alysson and Abraham almost combined to devastating effect but Abraham did not gamble in the box, much to Emery’s frustration. Perhaps Villa will, as McGinn suggested this week, prove everybody wrong – again.

Reporting from The Guardian contributed to this story.