Preview: Nottingham Forest vs Malmo - prediction, team news, lineups

Fresh from their convincing Premier League triumph over champions Liverpool, Nottingham Forest welcome Swedish side Malmo to the City Ground for matchday five in the Europa League on Thursday night.

While the Tricky Trees sit 23rd in the 36-team League Phase table and three points behind the top nine, the Sky Blues are still searching for their first win and find themselves down in 32nd place.

Match preview

The miserable 39-day reign of Ange Postecoglou is now a distant memory for Nottingham Forest supporters as they are enjoying life under new head coach Sean Dyche, who has steadied the ship and restored believe at the City Ground in admirable fashion.

Seven points have been accumulated across Forest’s last three Premier League games (W2 D1), with three picked up in their deserved 3-0 away triumph over a floundering Liverpool outfit at Anfield last weekend, a result which has seen the Tricky Trees climb out of the relegation zone.

Dyche’s men have also picked up four points in their last two Europa League matches, with an eye-catching 2-0 home victory over Portuguese giants Porto followed by a goalless stalemate with Sturm Graz in Austria three weeks ago, in which Morgan Gibbs-White missed a first-half penalty.

Still in contention to secure last-16 qualification, Forest will be looking to extend their unbeaten home run under Dyche to four matches when they face a Malmo outfit who have lost their last two European away games by an aggregate score of 8-0 - losing 5-0 to Copenhagen in the Champions League qualifiers and 3-0 to Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League.

Thursday’s eagerly-anticipated fixture is a re-run of Forest’s most famous nine in Europe back in 1979 when Trevor Francis scored the only goal in a narrow 1-0 victory for Brian Clough's side in the European Cup final held in Munich.

Malmo are preparing for their first competitive fixture in 18 days since concluding the 2025 Allsvenskan campaign with a 2-1 home win over GAIS, coming from a goal down at half time to claim maximum points in their final fixture of a disappointing Swedish top-flight season.

The 27-time champions were unable to defend their title and had to settle for their second-lowest finish in the last 16 years (sixth place - W13 D10 L7), 26 points behind surprise winners Mjallby AIF. The Sky Blues have therefore failed to qualify for European competition for 2026-27, unless they pull off an almighty upset and win the Europa League this term.

Progressing to the knockout rounds, let alone winning the competition, seems a tall order for Malmo, as they are one of only five teams in the 36-team table who are yet to win any of their first four League Phase fixtures (D1 L3), most recently losing 1-0 at home to Rafael Benitez’s Panathinaikos.

Anes Mravac’s side are now gearing up for their 12th encounter with English opposition. In their previous 11, they have suffered nine defeats and have conceded 21 goals in total. However, their solitary win against English opposition was a 2-1 triumph at home to Nottingham Forest in the first leg of a UEFA Cup first-round tie in 1995-96, before crashing out on aggregate via the away goals rule (2-2).

Nottingham Forest Europa League form:

Nottingham Forest form (all competitions):

Malmo Europa League form:

Malmo form (all competitions):

Team News

Nottingham Forest’s Ola Aina (thigh), Douglas Luiz (thigh), Chris Wood (knee), Oleksandr Zinchenko (hip), Dilane Bakwa (unspecified) and Angus Gunn (knee) all remain sidelined with injuries. Gunn is also ineligible along with Taiwo Awoniyi, Omari Hutchinson and Jair Cunha.

Dyche is expected to freshen up his team in a few positions despite the win at Liverpool last weekend, with John Victor hoping to earn a recall between the sticks at the expense of Matz Sels, and Morato in contention to replace either Nikola Milenkovic or Murillo at centre-back.

Ryan Yates and James McAtee will be pushing to start in midfield, while Callum Hudson-Odoi will hope to earn a recall on the left flank, as Igor Jesus or Arnaud Kalimuendo battle it out for a place up front.

As for Malmo, Arnor Sigurdsson (thigh), Gentian Lajqi (ACL) and Erik Botheim (broken leg) all remain sidelined with injuries, but Daniel Gudjohnsen - the son of ex-Chelsea forward Eidur Gudjohnsen - is available after serving a two-game suspension

Lasse Berg Johnsen has missed the last two games through injury and is set to be assessed. His potential absence could see Otto Rosengren, Oscar Lewicki and Adrian Skogmar all link up in centre-midfield.

Goalkeeper Melker Ellborg has started the last two Europa League matches and could retain his starting spot ahead of summer signing and former Aston Villa shot-stopper Robin Olsen, while former Leeds and Brentford defender Pontus Jansson is set to start at centre-back alongside Andrej Duric.

Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:

Victor; Savona, Milenkovic, Morato, Williams; Yates, Sangare; Ndoye, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Kalimuendo

Malmo possible starting lineup:

Ellborg; Larsen, Jansson, Duric, Busanello; Rosengren, Lewicki, Skogmar; Ekong, Haksabanovic, Bolin

We say: Nottingham Forest 2-0 Malmo

Taking into account Malmo’s poor start in the League Phase at Nottingham Forest’s upturn in form under Dyche, the hosts will be regarded as favourites on Thursday and should have enough quality to get the better of their Swedish counterparts, even if several changes are made to their lineup.

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