Nottm Forest, Spurs set for relegation straight shootout as critical flaw could gift an undeserved let-off | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest find themselves in the tricky predicament of juggling a Premier League relegation battle with a Europa League run.

Their fourth permanent manager of the season, Vitor Pereira, insisted before Forest‘s Europa League round of 16 first leg against FC Midtjylland that he is keen for them to be “competitive in both” competitions, but this is difficult to pull off in their current situation, and his team selection on Thursday night underlined where his true priorities lie.

Pereira protected regular Premier League starters Ibrahim Sangare, Neco Williams and Nikola Milenkovic by benching them, but there was still enough quality on the pitch to right the wrong of the 3-2 loss to Midtjylland under Ange Postecoglou in October.

And after the morale-boosting draw against Manchester City, it proved to be one step forward and two steps back as their same old problem held them back against Midtjylland.

In October, Midtjylland edged out an end-to-end match, in which the Danish outfit and Forest had a near-exact xG, but their second meeting of the 2025/26 campaign at the City Ground was very different.

This time, it was Forest on the front foot for the vast majority of the match, and were it not for their glaring Achilles heel, they would likely already be out of sight in this tie.

Their ten shots in the first half only included three on target, with each of these efforts being from range as Omari Hutchinson, Elliot Anderson and Ola Aina forced saves.

Morgan Gibbs-White’s deflected shot that went narrowly wide was the only notable attempt they carved in Midtjylland’s penalty area in the opening half, but more openings came their way after the break.

Whether their own players got in the way or they tried to walk the ball into the net, Forest continued to be perturbed by a severe lack of a killer instinct in the final third, while Gibbs-White is usually their sole creative spark.

And this has been the story of Forest’s season, with Wolves (22) the only side to score fewer goals than Pereira’s side (28) in the Premier League. The 17th-placed side are also underperforming their xG by five goals, with the absence since October of Chris Wood, who scored 20 goals last year and has three in nine games this term, sorely felt.

His replacement, Igor Jesus, has only two goals in the Premier League but seven in the Europa League, with Gibbs-White sitting as their top scorer in the league with eight.

Forest does have the bonus of being the best defensive unit of the Premier League’s bottom five based on goals conceded, but this means nothing if they cannot convert their defensive work into wins, and their downfall against Midtjylland gives encouragement to their relegation rivals.

Just as Forest were losing momentum and hope in attack, they were punished for their wastefulness as Gue-sung Cho brushed off a weak challenge from Aina to head home Ousmane Diao’s cross to give his side the lead with ten minutes remaining.

Once this goal went in, it felt inevitable that Midtjylland would seal their second away win vs Forest of the season and they are now firm favourites to progress in the competition with their unbeaten home record in 2025/26.

Forest do have more pressing concerns in the Premier League, and with Pereira struggling to fix their long-term issues in the final third, they could easily give Spurs an undeserved reprieve in the relegation fight as West Ham comfortably looks the most accomplished of the three teams.