Category: UEFA Europa League

Morgan Gibbs-White scored the only goal against a resilient ten-man Porto, as Forest reached their first European semi-final for 42 years

4 min: Sangare releases Gibbs-White down the right. Promising for Forest … until the whistle goes, Sangare having come through the back of Alberto Costa on the touchline. The correct decision, if annoyingly belated from a Forest point of view, everyone all excited for a second.

2 min: It’s an absolutely belting atmosphere, both sets of fans giving it plenty. But Porto nearly quieten the home fans in short order, Moffi latching onto a prod down the inside-right channel and attempting to flick past Ortega. The Forest keeper swipes away. The rebound falls to William Gomes, who blazes over. Yikes.

Continue reading...

A ludicrous Martim Fernandes own goal allowed Nottingham Forest to leave Porto level going into the second leg

Thiago Silva is at the back for Porto, at a very young 41. He must ruddy love football. I would have been a deck chair long ago. It is, however, nice to know there are still a few active footballers who are older than me.

This is relevant, in many ways, to this game.

Continue reading...

Plus: teams who went out of Europe without losing a game, and rare competitive meetings

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“What’s the furthest a team has gone in Europe while being relegated in the same season?” wonders Matt Reilly.

This question was probably asked in reference to Tottenham, who were still in the Champions League at the time, but it’s still relevant to some of this year’s quarter-finalists. Nottingham Forest are three points above the relegation places in the Premier League; Fiorentina only have a five-point cushion in Serie A.

Real Zaragoza 2001-02, first round; 2007-08, first round

Alaves 2002-03, second round

Celta Vigo 2006-07, last 16

Real Zaragoza 2007-08, first round

Real Betis 2013-14, last 16

Espanyol 2019-20, last 32

Blackburn Rovers 1998-99, Uefa Cup first round

Bradford City 2000-01, Intertoto semi-final

Ipswich Town 2001-02, Uefa Cup third round

Ruda Hvezda Brno 1960-61, Cup Winners’ Cup

Dynamo Zilina 1961-62, Cup Winners’ Cup

Espanyol 1961-62. Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

Napoli 1962-63, Cup Winners’ Cup

Bayern Munich 1962-63, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

1. FC Magdeburg 1965-66, Cup Winners’ Cup

Lyn 1968-69, Cup Winners’ Cup

Beroe Stara Zagora 1973-74, Cup Winners’ Cup

Real Betis 1977-78, Cup Winners’ Cup

Bologna 1990-91, Uefa Cup

First round Artmedia Bratislavia (2-2 away, 3-1 home)

Group stage Sparta Prague (2-0 away), Zulte Waregem (6-2 home), Ajax (2-0 away), Austria Wien (1-0 home)

Last 32 Livorno (2-1 away, 2-0 home)

Last 16 Maccabi Haifa (0-0 away, 4-0 home)

Quarter-final Benfica (3-2 home, 0-0 away)

Semi-final Werder Bremen (3-0 home, 2-1 away)

Final Sevilla 2-2 (1-3 pens)

Continue reading...

John McGinn and Leon Bailey scored the goals that eased Villa into the quarters

2 min: … but that was a fast start by Villa, and they’ve clearly been told to get right into Lille during the early exchanges. They’re first to everything at the moment. Small sample size, admittedly.

1 min: Abraham gets lively quickly. He steals the ball off a snoozing Bouaddi and feeds McGinn down the inside-left channel. McGinn attempts something spectacular from distance. It doesn’t come off, dribbling harmlessly wide right.

Continue reading...

Forest made their first European quarter-final in 30 years, wining 2-1 on the night and 3-0 on penalties to set up a last-eight meeting with either Porto or Stuttgart

Question: what is the exact thing the Premier League – and wider world of football – does not need?

Answer: this.

Continue reading...

Nottingham Forest seek to overturn a one-goal Europa League deficit against a familiar foe who were early champions of the set piece

“I like a bit of chaos and structure both on and off the pitch,” says Midtjylland’s technical director, Kristian Kjær. “Getting the right mix is most important.” Perfecting this balance has enabled the Danish side to thrive in Europe, powered by a global recruitment model and innovation.

Nottingham Forest travel to the MCH Arena on Thursday seeking to overturn a one-goal deficit from the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie, having also lost to Midtjylland in the group stage this season. This is the furthest the Danish club, founded in 1999, have progressed in Europe. “It must have been insane to be starting the club [just over] 25 years ago and then see where we are today,” says Kjær. “What a ride.”

Continue reading...

A second-half header from Ollie Watkins gave Villa a one-goal lead going into next week’s second leg

So where is the game? Well, Villa will look to get Rogers on the ball, coming inside off the left. He won’t keep the width in attack, which’ll be supplied by Lucas Digne; rather, he’ll wander about in the inside-left half-space looking to get shots off. Otherwise, Buendia will slip balls down the sides of the centre-backs for Ollie Watkins, while Amadou Onana and Douglas Luiz look to bottle up the middle of the pitch in front of the defence.

Tangentially, the kit Keown wore when he started at Villa is an absolute jazzer.

Continue reading...

Two goals from Kerem Akturkoglu put Forest under pressure, but Callum Hudson-Odoi’s goal calmed things and they saw out a 4-2 aggregate win

On the telly, they’ve just been discussing James McAtee, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he does tonight. City are now in that spot United were under Alex Ferguson, where clubs buy their players because they know the standard can be too high for good ones to make it and respect the managers who keep them around. He’s got a lovely touch and decent vision, but does he have the ability to impose that? We don’t yet know.

Forest actually did pretty well to keep as many players as they did after last season – and getting £52m+£3m for Anthony Elanga was a remarkable piece of business. I’m not sure Anderson will still be around after the summer, whereas Gibbs-White has a contract – but there surely comes a point at which players don’t trust Marinakis with their careers and just want to up sticks from the upheaval.

Continue reading...

Goals from Murillo, Igor Jesus and Morgan Gibbs-White give Vitor Pereira a winning start as Forest head coach

I was at Dyche’s final game in charge and Omari Hutchinson was underwhelming, to say the least. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to the new regime.

Pereira: “Today is three days working. but working to play in a way to try short communications, be very clear. Today I hope that I see my team play organised with tactical organisation, and be able to express themselves, play with courage and a mentality to win.”

Continue reading...

• Nineteen-year-old fires winner to give Villa 3-2 win

• Rangers’ poor campaign ends with 3-1 loss to Porto

The 19-year-old Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba was the hero as Aston Villa came from two goals down to beat Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 at Villa Park, though they lost Ollie Watkins to injury in the first half.

Jimoh-Aloba hit the winner with three minutes remaining, tucking Kadan Young’s low cross into the corner to cap a fightback that looked unlikely after a limp showing for an hour.

Continue reading...

Aston Villa hit back from two down to beat Salzburg, Nottingham Forest thrashed Ferencvaros and Celtic secured a playoff place

“Villa feel like a proper club again,” says your roving reporter Martin Keown at Villa Park. Not sure what “proper” means there, but OK.

“They can win the Premier League. Everyone’s saying they can’t.”

Continue reading...

In a tumultuous campaign and three-way Scottish title fight, the 73-year-old manager still has ambitions on the European stage

Martin O’Neill’s involvement in celebrated European moments in Celtic’s history means he is entitled to bridle at the belief that domain is no longer a priority. O’Neill used pre-match media duties for the Europa League visit of Utrecht on Thursday to point towards what has the potential to be an uplifting few days for the Scottish champions.

“We got a result in Feyenoord and fought our guts out in Bologna,” he said. “We don’t now want to just throw it away. We want to try and go for it if we can. We could still lose the game. We might not win the match and we might go out of the competition, but we want to give it a go.

Continue reading...

Rangers celebrated their first win of a troubled campaign while Forest missed a penalty and paid the price in Portugal

Fenerbahce have equalised against Aston Villa, with Kerem Aktürkoğlu getting it. It’s 1-1 in Turkey.

It’s now 2-2 in Bologna, the Englishman Jonathan Rowe has got the goal, cutting across the Celtic defence to score.

Continue reading...

• Manager shoves his own midfielder in stoppage time

• Aston Villa into last 16 with victory at Fenerbahce

Aston Villa sealed a top-eight finish in the Europa League after Jadon Sancho’s first goal for the club gave them a 1-0 win over Fenerbahce in Turkey. But the Villa manager, Unai Emery, was involved in a touchline spat with Youri Tielemans after the midfielder was substituted in stoppage time.

Villa’s win was their sixth from seven European matches this season and ended Fenerbahce’s unbeaten home record. Sancho opened his account in Villa colours to put the visitors in the driving seat amid a loud Sukru Saracoglu Stadium atmosphere.

Continue reading...

A good night for English clubs in Europe; not so much for Scotland’s representatives

Stuttgart 3-1 Maccabi Tel Aviv. Some bonus content here. No need to thank us! And there really is no need to thank us, because it comes courtesy of our old MBM and Clockwatch pal Kári Tulinius. “Stuttgart looked like they were heading to the most comfortable of home wins when they went 3-0 up after yet another defensive rick by Maccabi, when the normally reliable Alexander Nübel tried to save Roy Revivo’s shot with a hand so weak it seemed like it was made out of cottage cheese. The comedy defending moment still goes to the visitors, though, who let in an opener after a covering defender simply fell on his behind while tracking a high ball, giving Lorenz Assignon all the time in the world to measure the aim on his volley.”

Callum O’Dowda swings a ball in from the left wing. Barnabás Varga heads into the top-right corner from close range. He couldn’t miss, partly because the nearest defender, Emmanuel Fernandez, was the wrong side of the striker, facing upfield, then span around in confusion, making no challenge whatsoever. Comically poor defending.

Continue reading...