Aston Villa defeated Seville in a friendly for the Antonio Puerta Trophy, played on Friday evening at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium. Unai Emery's side won 3-1, with Villa scoring all three goals within a span of 12 minutes.
The trophy is named in memory of one of Seville's former players, Antonio Puerta, who passed away in August 2007 at the age of 22. Puerta suffered a cardiac arrest during a La Liga match against Getafe; he appeared to recover and returned to the dressing room, but collapsed again and died three days later in hospital.
Puerta had made his debut for Seville's first team in the 2003/04 season and made a total of 88 appearances for the club. He was capped once by Spain, in 2006. The club won five trophies in 15 months, including two consecutive UEFA Cup titles, now known as the Europa League. A trophy was established in his honour the following year.
This year's edition was the 15th. Aston Villa became the first English club invited to compete for the trophy. Seville had previously won in 12 of the previous 14 editions, with only Granada and Boca Juniors managing to defeat Seville in this fixture. The early editions were entirely Spanish, with Seville facing clubs from La Liga, and Boca Juniors becoming the first overseas opponent in 2016. Subsequent editions featured Roma, Schalke, Independiente del Valle, Al-Ittihad and Al-Qadsiah.
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery returned to the stadium where he experienced one of the most successful periods of his managerial career. Emery managed Seville between 2013 and 2016, winning the Europa League three times in a row.
Isaac Romero opened the scoring for Seville after the break, but Ross Barkley equalised before Alejandro Garnero scored, with Max Jenner adding a third goal. Garnero started the match, as did Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who had made only one start since his summer transfer from Southampton for £30 million. Villa's Brian Madjo returned from injury as a second-half substitute; he had been out of action since scoring on his debut against Paris Saint-Germain in the Super Cup in August.
