Forest, Palace narrowly avoid latest blows in demoralising seasons but European escapades to end soon | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest boss Vitor Pereira initially offered up the facade that his side was equally focused on the Premier League and the Europa League, but this evaporated as soon as he named his starting XI after heading into the round of 16 second leg against Midtjylland with a 1-0 deficit.

With the all-important trip to Spurs coming days after this Europa League decider, Pereira showed where his priorities truly lie by making nine changes for the trip to Midtjylland and seeming to give up on his side’s European escapade, but this actually gave his stand-ins the freedom to express themselves.

Forest were the better side in the first leg against Midtjylland, but they were left to rue their wastefulness in front of goal and were punished with a sucker punch in the 1-0 defeat.

This severe lack of a clinical edge has derailed Forest’s season, and this Achilles’ Heel continued to hold them back in the second leg until they finally found the net after previously spurning over 30 attempts in the tie.

Forest were faced with an intimidating atmosphere at Midtjylland, but the visitors utterly dominated to silence the home crowd before Nicolas Dominguez’s looping header on the brink of half-time – after Lorenzo Lucca had missed a sitter and James McAtee had struck the bar – got Pereira’s side the goal they had craved.

The one-sided nature of this second leg was underlined by Midtjylland making two half-time changes, but this had little impact before Ryan Yates thundered home a stunning strike from 25 yards out to give Forest a deserved 2-1 lead over two legs.

At this point, Forest and Crystal Palace looked primed to buck the trend of English sides struggling in Europe, with Oliver Glasner’s side’s positive start against AEK Larnaca paying off as star forward Ismaila Sarr broke the deadlock in the tie inside the opening 15 minutes.

It was a typically nonchalant finish from Sarr, who latched onto a deflected reverse pass by Adam Wharton in behind AEK Larnaca’s defence to round the goalkeeper and convert for his fourth goal in the Europa Conference League this season.

But nearly in unison, AEK Larnaca and Midtjylland hit back at their English opponents with goals after otherwise facing one-way traffic at the other end, with these breakthroughs sending each tie into extra time.

Many expected Palace to cruise through to the latter stages of the Conference League, but nothing about their 2025/26 campaign as the FA Cup holders have learned the hard way that a club of their size cannot have nice things for too long.

With the increasingly ugly nature of Glasner’s exit, Marc Guehi’s sale or the hurtful Jean-Philippe Mateta saga, Palace have crashed down to earth with an almighty bump this term and it feels like it will be a very, very long time before they are treated to a repeat of last season’s FA Cup final triumph against Manchester City.

Palace can at least hang their hat on Sarr, though.

AEK Larnaca scorer Enric Saborit got sent off for two yellow cards with 20 minutes remaining of normal time to place the Eagles further into the ascendancy with their 70% possession and 25+ shots, with Sarr breaching the Greek side for a second time with a swept finish from a corner to send his side into the quarter-finals, though this was only via a late VAR scare for a penalty and second red card for their opponents.

Forest’s route into the quarter-final of their European competition was even more complicated, with Ryan Yates’ late disallowed goal sending the tie with Midtjylland to penalties.

Thankfully for Pereira’s side, Midtjylland missed all three of their spot-kicks via two strikes of the post and one over the bar, while Morgan Gibbs-White, Ibrahim Sangare and Neco Williams converted to get a job done that should have been sorted long before penalties came into play if they were able to take more of their chances.

If Forest and Palace do not improve, they will come unstuck when they face stronger opposition deeper into their respective competitions as their deep-rooted problems remain.