AFCON 2025
Nottingham Forest find themselves in a difficult situation in a bid to qualify for the last eight of the Europa League.
The Tricky Trees failed to take home advantage as they fell to a narrow defeat to Danish side Midtjylland in the first leg of their round of 16 tie at the City Ground.
Despite dominating the tie, Viktor Pereira’s men slumped to a 1-0 defeat courtesy of a second-half header by South Korean striker Gue-Su g Cho in the 80th minute.
Nottingham Forest’s loss adds to the disastrous performance of English teams in Europe this week after Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool lost their Champions League ties.
However, Aston Villa made the difference in Lille as Unai Emery left with a goal and a clean sheet ahead of the return leg in Birmingham next week.
Ollie Watkins second-half goal sealed the important win as the Villans put themselves in pole position to pick a quarter-final ticket ahead of the French side.
The win is Aston Villa’s sixth consecutive win in the Europa League after starting the league phase with a loss at Go Ahead Eagles.
Super Eagles striker Tarem Moffi scored his second goal for Porto on Thursday night away at Stuttgart.
Moffi started in attack and repair the manager’s faith in him as he scored the opener in the 21st minute of the match.
The 25-year-old striker kept his cool in the box before burying the ball into the corner of goal from Borja Sainz’s pass.
FC Porto secured a 2-1 win away from home at Stuttgart as they head back to Portugal with a slim but encouraging advantage.
