Nottingham Forest welcome Aston Villa to City Ground for a mouth-watering all-Premier League Europa League semi-final first leg on Thursday night.
Despite coming into this fixture from opposite sides of the Premier League table, these two teams have a strong chance of going all the way in Europe’s second-tier tournament this season.
Forest and Villa are also squaring off in contrasting form. The Tricky Trees will be brimming with confidence after tearing Sunderland to shreds in their most recent Premier League outing.
Meanwhile, Villa suffered a minor setback in their quest to secure Champions League football after falling to a shocking 1-0 defeat against Fulham at Craven Cottage.
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Producing arguably their most complete performance of the season, Forest ripped apart Sunderland 5-0 to strengthen their chances of avoiding relegation from the Premier League.
Sunderland have been praised all season for being difficult to overpower at the Stadium of Light, but Forest decimated Regis Le Bris’ side with a minimum of fuss.
The Tricky Trees had the game wrapped up in the first half after a riotous 20-minute spell where they racked up an astonishing four-goal lead.
An own goal from Trai Hume got the ball rolling while Morgan Gibbs-White extended his record as the Premier League’s top scorer in 2026 on either side of goals from Chris Wood and Igor Jesus.
The highly sought-after Elliot Anderson joined the party at the last minute, capping off a five-star performance from Vitor Pereira’s side.
Pereira’s side have been a different beast since mid-March when they eliminated Midtjylland in the Europa League quarter final.
Forest are now unbeaten in their last eight games across all competitions (W5, D2) and will take on Villa on the back of a three-match winning streak.
However, getting the better of Villa would be a huge task for Forest, considering they’ve already failed to do so in two Premier League attempts this season (D1, L1).
They’ve also won just one of their last five meetings with Villa (D1, L3), so they’ll have to repeat that exceptional performance against Sunderland to stand any chance when the Villans come visiting.
After missing out on goal difference last season, Villa are on course to qualify for the Champions League.
Their momentum took a hit after the narrow defeat to Fulham, where they were second best by Youri Tielemans’ admission.
But they still hold a healthy eight-point lead over Brighton & Hove Albion with four games left, so they can afford to focus on their Europa League ambitions.
With Unai Emery at the helm, Villa are undoubtedly favourites to go all the way and secure their first piece of silverware in three decades.
The defeat to Fulham snapped Villa’s six-match unbeaten streak across all competitions, including a staggering 7-1 aggregate victory over Bologna in the quarter-final.