On Friday evening Aston Villa walked out at Sevilla's Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium to play for a trophy that few supporters outside Spain will have heard of, and they won it. Unai Emery's side beat Sevilla 3-1 in the Antonio Puerta Trophy, scoring three times in 12 minutes.
How the game went
Isaac Romero opened the scoring for Sevilla after the break. Villa answered fast: Ross Barkley levelled, Alejandro Garnacho put them ahead, and Max Jenner added the third. Garnacho was one of two notable starters. He played alongside centre-half Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who has made just one start since his £30m summer move from Southampton.
Villa striker Brian Madjo also came back from injury as a second-half substitute. He had been out since scoring on his debut against Paris St-Germain in the Super Cup in August.
Who was Antonio Puerta?
The match is played in memory of Sevilla academy graduate Antonio Puerta, who died in August 2007 aged 22. He suffered a cardiac arrest during a La Liga game against Getafe and, after appearing to recover and walking to the dressing room, collapsed again. He died in hospital three days later. His death stunned Spanish football, because he was one of Sevilla's own.
Puerta made his first-team debut in the 2003-04 season and went on to play 88 times for the club, plus once for Spain in 2006. He helped Sevilla win five trophies in 15 months, including two consecutive Uefa Cups, now called the Europa League. A year after he died, the club created a trophy in his honour. What began as a fairly modest pre-season fixture has become an annual part of Sevilla's calendar.
Why Villa, and why Emery
This was the 15th edition, and Villa were the first English club ever invited. There was an obvious link. Emery managed Sevilla from 2013 to 2016 and won the Europa League three years running, so he returned to the stadium where he had one of the most successful spells of his career. Sevilla paid tribute to their former boss before kick-off.
Sevilla had won 12 of the previous 14 editions, with only Granada and Boca Juniors beating them. The early editions were all-Spanish, before overseas sides started to be invited. Boca were the first in 2016, followed by Roma, Schalke, Independiente del Valle, Al-Ittihad and Al-Qadsiah. Villa are the latest name on that list, and the first from England to take the trophy home.
Match facts: Sevilla 1-3 Aston Villa, Antonio Puerta Trophy (friendly), Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium, Friday 2 October 2026. Scorers: Romero (Sevilla); Barkley, Garnacho, Jenner (Villa). Villa's three goals came in a 12-minute spell. Goal minutes were not given in the source report.
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