PSG won back-to-back UEFA Super Cups and joins AC Milan and Real Madrid as the only clubs to achieve the rare feat.
PSG won their second UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday night in Austria, defeating Aston Villa 2-1 thanks to goals from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue. The Paris club lifted the trophy for the second year in a row, an anomaly in the record books given the list of clubs that have failed in attempts to do the double.
There have been 51 editions of this competition, created in 1973 at the initiative of the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, before UEFA took it over the following season. Across those 51 editions, several clubs have reached two consecutive finals, but very few have managed to win this trophy two years in a row.
The great AC Milan side of Arrigo Sacchi was the first club to pull off this feat, with a first win in 1989 against Barcelona (two legs: 1-1 at Camp Nou, 1-0 at San Siro), then the following season in 1990 against Sampdoria (1-1 at Luigi Ferraris, 2-0 at San Siro).
It was then the Real Madrid of Zinedine Zidane that became the second club to achieve this, with a first victory in 2016 against Sevilla (3-2 after extra time at Lerkendal Stadion in Trondheim, Norway) and a second title in 2017 against Manchester United (2-1 at Philip II National Arena in Skopje, North Macedonia).
After the 26-year wait between the Milan and Madrid doubles, PSG have matched the achievement eight years after Real Madrid, entering the record book as the third club to accomplish what can fairly be called a rare feat.
In the competition’s all-time rankings, PSG now sits eighth, level with Ajax Amsterdam, with both clubs having two wins and one final loss. Real Madrid leads the standings with six trophies and three final defeats.
The first club to play in two consecutive finals, Bayern Munich, lost on both occasions (1975 and 1976, defeats against Dynamo Kyiv and Anderlecht). English club Liverpool came very close to becoming the first team to complete the double in the competition’s history but saw the second trophy slip away in the return leg (1977 and 1978, victory against Hamburg 1-1, 6-0 and defeat against Anderlecht 3-1, 1-2).
Right after that, another English club, Nottingham Forest, also came close to a double, like Liverpool, but the second attempt was not successful (1979 and 1980: victory against Barcelona 1-0, 1-1; defeat against Valencia 2-1, 0-1). Then came the great Milan side of Fabio Capello, which came closest to another double in 1993 and 1994, losing the first before coming back stronger (defeat against Parma 0-1, 2-0 after extra time; victory against Arsenal 0-0, 2-0).
Next was Portuguese club FC Porto, the first team this century to appear in two finals, but both ended in defeat (2003 and 2004, against Milan 1-0 and Valencia 2-1). Another English club also bit the dust twice: Chelsea, which recorded back-to-back defeats (2012 and 2013, against Atletico Madrid 4-1 and Bayern Munich 2-2, 5-4 on penalties).
The record for consecutive losses belongs to Unai Emery’s Sevilla FC, with three defeats in a row from 2014 to 2016 (against Real Madrid 2-0, Barcelona 5-4 after extra time, and Real Madrid again 3-2 after extra time).
