Preview: Nottingham Forest vs Aston Villa - prediction, team news, lineups

The first leg of an all-English Europa League semi-final between Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa takes centre stage at the City Ground on Thursday night.

The winners of this eagerly-anticipated two-legged tie between two European Cup winners will lock horns with either Braga or Freiburg in the final at Besiktas Park in Istanbul on May 20.

Match preview

Nottingham Forest enter their first major European semi-final since 1984 in high spirits after surprising everyone with their emphatic 5-0 Premier League victory over Sunderland last Friday, extending their unbeaten run in all competitions to eight matches (W5 D3).

Vitor Pereira has restored positivity at the City Ground and the Tricky Trees have an advantage over their relegation-threatened rivals in avoiding the drop, as they sit five points clear of the bottom three with four league games remaining, including a trip to an out-of-sorts Chelsea side next Monday.

Forest will now shift their focus to the first all-Midlands tie in UEFA competition and the first all-English semi-final since Man United beat Arsenal in the 2008-09 Champions League. The last all-English Europa League match was, in fact, last season’s final when Tottenham Hotspur won 1-0 against Man United.

After finishing 13th in the League Phase, winning four, drawing two and losing two of their eight matches, Forest have navigated their way past Fenerbahce, Midtjylland and Porto to reach the Europa League semi-finals, beating the latter 2-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals earlier this month.

The Tricky Trees - European Cup winners in 1979 and 1980 under Brian Clough - failed to beat Aston Villa in both Premier League meetings earlier this season, but they will take comfort from a four-game unbeaten home run versus the Lions (W2 D2), most recently drawing 1-1 at the City Ground on April 12.

After reaching the Conference League semi-finals in 2024 and the Champions League quarter-finals last season, Europa League favourites Aston Villa are hoping to progress to their first European final since beating Bayern Munich in the 1982 European Cup showpiece under Tony Barton.

The Lions now have an esteemed head coach at the helm in the form of Unai Emery, who recently became the fastest boss in the club’s history to reach 100 wins (after 181 games). The Spaniard is also the only manager in Europa League history to win the competition four times (three with Sevilla, one with Villarreal).

Emery has insisted that Europa League glory this term is “very important” for his Aston Villa side, who are the competition’s highest scorers thus far with 24 goals, just one ahead of Nottingham Forest (23), while they also rank joint-first for clean sheets (seven, along with Braga).

Villa finished second in the 36-team League Phase, level on points with table-toppers Lyon on 21 points (W7 L1), before they made light work of Lille and Bologna in the knockout rounds, easing to a 7-1 aggregate victory over the latter in the quarter-finals.

However, the Midlands outfit head into Thursday’s first leg looking to bounce back from a frustrating 1-0 loss at Fulham in the Premier League last Saturday. While that defeat saw them drop to fifth in the table, Champions League qualification could be secured this weekend if they beat Spurs and sixth-placed Brighton lose their next match.

Nottingham Forest Europa League form:

Nottingham Forest form (all competitions):

Aston Villa Europa League form:

Aston Villa form (all competitions):

Team News

Nottingham Forest will be without Callum Hudson-Odoi, Murillo (hamstring), John Victor, Nicolo Savona, Willy Boly (all knee) and Luca Netz (ineligible), while Jair Cunha is doubtful with a shoulder injury sustained in the win at Sunderland last time out.

Morato could be recalled to start at centre-back alongside Nikola Milenkovic, while Pereira will consider replacing goalkeeper Mats Sels with January signing Stefan Ortega, who has started Forest’s last three Europa League games.

In-form Morgan Gibbs-White has scored five goals in his last three games across all competitions, and he may continue on the left side of midfield if Pereira decides to stick with Chris Wood and Igor Jesus as a centre-forward pairing; Jesus is the Europa League’s joint-top scorer this term with seven goals.

As for Aston Villa, Boubacar Kamara (knee) and Alysson (unspecified) remain sidelined, while Amadou Onana will be assessed ahead of kickoff after missing the defeat at Fulham with a knee issue.

Lamare Bogarde is the most likely candidate to continue in centre-midfield alongside Youri Tielemans if Onana is not fit to start, though Ross Barkley and former Forest player Douglas Luiz are two more options at Emery’s disposal.

Ollie Watkins has scored three goals in his last two Europa League away games and he is expected to continue up front, with Morgan Rogers, John McGinn and Emiliano Buendia providing support in attack. In defence, left-back Ian Maatsen and centre-back Tyrone Mings could both be recalled to the first XI.

Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:

Ortega; Aina, Milenkovic, Morato, Williams; Hutchinson, Sangare, Anderson, Gibbs-White; Wood, Jesus

Aston Villa possible starting lineup:

Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen; Bogarde, Tielemans; McGinn, Rogers, Buendia; Watkins

We say: Nottingham Forest 1-1 Aston Villa

Taking into account the cagey nature of first-leg affairs, the fact that over 2.5 goals have been scored in only two of Forest’s last nine home games, and that Aston Villa have failed to score two or more goals in six of their last seven away matches, a low-scoring contest could be on the cards on Thursday.

Both teams will back themselves to claim a positive result and take a slender advantage into next week’s return fixture at Villa Park, but we feel that the spoils could be shared again for the second time this month.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.