2021 UEFA Super Cup


The 2021 UEFA Super Cup was the 46th edition of the UEFA Super Cup, an annual football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The match featured English club Chelsea, the winners of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League, and Spanish club Villarreal, the winners of the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League. It was played at Windsor Park—went by the name of National Football Stadium at Windsor Park—in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 11 August 2021.
Chelsea won the match 6–5 on penalties following a 1–1 draw after extra time for their second UEFA Super Cup title.
This was the final edition of the UEFA Super Cup to use extra-time, as they removed it in the 2023 edition.

Venue

The match was the first UEFA club competition final to be played in Northern Ireland. The 18,500-capacity Windsor Park is the home of Linfield and the Northern Ireland national team. Opened in 1905, the stadium was most recently renovated from 2014 to 2016 with aid from UEFA's HatTrick assistance programme. The venue previously hosted the finals of the 2005 UEFA European Under-19 Championship and 2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship.

Host selection

An open bidding process was launched on 28 September 2018 by UEFA to select the venues of the finals of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Women's Champions League in 2021. Associations had until 26 October 2018 to express interest, and bid dossiers must be submitted by 15 February 2019.
UEFA announced on 1 November 2018 that four associations had expressed interest in hosting the 2021 UEFA Super Cup, and on 22 February 2019 that all four associations submitted their dossiers by the deadline.
CountryStadiumCityCapacity
Dinamo StadiumMinsk22,000
Olympic StadiumHelsinki36,000
Windsor ParkBelfast18,434
Metalist StadiumKharkiv40,003

Windsor Park was selected by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 24 September 2019.

Pre-match

Officials

On 6 August 2021, UEFA named Russian official Sergei Karasev as the referee for the match. Karasev had been a FIFA referee since 2010, and officiated at UEFA Euro 2016, the 2018 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2020. He was joined by fellow countrymen Igor Demeshko and Maksim Gavrilin as assistant referees, while Aleksei Kulbakov of Belarus served as the fourth official. Marco Fritz of Germany was selected as the video assistant referee, with Paweł Gil of Poland and Massimiliano Irrati of Italy serving as the assistant VAR officials. Irrati's countryman Filippo Meli was selected as the reserve assistant referee.

Match

Summary

Chelsea opened the scoring after 27 minutes when Kai Havertz's low cross from the left was swept into the net by Hakim Ziyech from seven yards out. Ziyech was substituted after a shoulder injury just before half-time. Alberto Moreno hit a volley off the underside of the crossbar in first-half injury time. Villarreal equalised in the 73rd minute when Gerard Moreno scored with a clinical right-foot finish to the top left corner of the net after a flick-back from Boulaye Dia on the right of the penalty area.
The match went to extra-time with Chelsea goalkeeper Édouard Mendy being replaced in the last minute by Kepa Arrizabalaga. Arrizabalaga saved two penalties, the decisive one low to his right from Raúl Albiol allowed Chelsea to win 6–5 in the shoot-out.

Details

The Champions League winners were designated as the "home" team for administrative purposes.

Statistics

StatisticChelseaVillarreal
Goals scored10
Total shots66
Shots on target31
Saves12
Ball possession61%39%
Corner kicks42
Fouls committed56
Offsides00
Yellow cards20
Red cards00

StatisticChelseaVillarreal
Goals scored01
Total shots85
Shots on target33
Saves23
Ball possession49%51%
Corner kicks23
Fouls committed34
Offsides21
Yellow cards01
Red cards00

StatisticChelseaVillarreal
Goals scored00
Total shots71
Shots on target10
Saves01
Ball possession63%37%
Corner kicks30
Fouls committed25
Offsides21
Yellow cards11
Red cards00

StatisticChelseaVillarreal
Goals scored11
Total shots2112
Shots on target74
Saves36
Ball possession57%43%
Corner kicks95
Fouls committed1015
Offsides42
Yellow cards32
Red cards00