Nottingham Forest vying with Tottenham to bring ultimate shame on Europe after Brighton defeat | OneFootball

“You cannot use the Europa League as an excuse because we are there and we are there competing,” Vitor Pereira said after suffering his second Premier League defeat as Nottingham Forest manager on Sunday. “Before I accepted the job, I knew that we have ambitions to keep our targets in both competitions.”

West Ham’s 5-2 defeat to Liverpool on Saturday means Forest remain two points clear of the relegation zone despite their 2-1 loss to Brighton, which saw Diego Gomez and Danny Welbeck score either side of Morgan Gibbs-White’s howitzer.

After two defeats on the bounce following Europa League games, in which Forest saw off Fenerbahce across two play-off legs to secure a last 16 clash with Midtjylland, Pereira insists other commitments aren’t an excuse but actually definitely are because if they weren’t then they wouldn’t be worth mentioning.

“The tiredness is not only physical, it’s mental too. You need to recover,” he added.

Tottenham did their bit on Sunday to remain in touching distance of both West Ham and Forest in what is becoming an increasingly real relegation battle for an already spiky Igor Tudor, who spent most of the afternoon against Fulham contemplating his life choices before launching into an astonishing rant after the game, in which he claimed Marco Silva’s side were the beneficiaries of a “home referee” and had a “cheat” in their midst.

Both Tottenham and Forest are currently bringing shame upon the rest of Europe through their progression in the Champions League and Europa League respectively. Spurs earning home legs in the last 16 and quarter-finals of the knockout rounds by finishing fourth in the league phase is particularly damning of the quality of their opponents in that competition but it would be remarkable if they were to get past Atletico Madrid and continue to embarrass those on the continent.

But after beating Fenerbahce 3-0 in Istanbul and because they’ve got a really quite good team and a deep-ish squad equipped to beat anyone on their day, there’s a distinct possibility that Forest could go deep in the Europa League and maybe even win it.

They’re on the more difficult side of the draw, featuring Roma, Stuttgart and Aston Villa, and we’re by no means suggesting it would be anything other than a major shock should Pereira drive Forest to a European trophy, but the players may see the games against Midtjylland and beyond as free hits; an opportunity to express themselves without the pressure of Premier League survival and the shackles that stress can place upon them as footballers.

They’re far more likely to avoid relegation than they are to win the Europa League of course, but while there’s a chance that a club could get relegated after winning a major European gong – with the final day of the Premier League four days after the final in Istanbul – we’re going to cling to that glorious possibility and the even more glorious and European football-shaming reality of that club then competing in the Champions League and Championship next season.