FC Utrecht vs. Nottingham Forest: Sean Dyche's side looking to strengthen historic European record, extend dismal streak of Europa League opponents

By Darren Plant | 10 Dec 2025 10:24

Forest looking to strengthen historic European record, extend dismal Utrecht streak

Nottingham Forest will have the chance to strengthen an historic record when they square off against FC Utrecht on Thursday evening.

The Premier League club head into Thursday's Europa League fixture in the Netherlands knowing that victory could put the club on the brink of reaching the knockout phase of the competition.

Sean Dyche's side currently sit in 16th place in the standings, a consequence of their recently-appointed head coach delivering seven points from his opening three European games.

Meanwhile, Utrecht are down in 32nd position in the table having collected just one point from their five fixtures in this year's competition.

As a result of their respective recent results, Forest and Utrecht have records and streaks on the line ahead of the game at Stadion Galgenwaard.

Forest bidding to retain European high

Since Dyche replaced Ange Postecoglou, Forest have kept clean sheets against Porto, Sturm Graz and Malmo respectively.

Forest have now recorded 25 shutouts in their 51 major European fixtures. Of the teams to play 50+ such games, Forest hold the best clean-sheet ratio of 49%.

At the other end, Forest have quirkily scored each of their five European goals under Dyche from set-pieces.

Furthermore, they have netted just once across three encounters in all competitions, a result of a goalkeeping mistake at the Premier League's bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers last week.

Utrecht the worst Dutch side in European history?

While Utrecht may be on a five-match undefeated run in the Eredivisie, they have currently failed to make the most of their first European adventure for six years.

Not only do they have just one point from a possible 15 in this year's Europa League, Utrecht are without a win in their last 16 major European fixtures.

Utrecht have no such victory to their name since a 4-0 victory over Djurgarden IF in the first round of the 2004-05 UEFA Cup.

That said, it should be noted that Utrecht recorded two goalless draws against Liverpool in the 2010-11 Europa League, their only previous competitive games against English opposition.