Vitor Pereira: players ‘are not machines’ after ‘sad’ Villa blow | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest head coach Vitor Pereira called it a sad day and shifted focus to survival after a 4-0 defeat at Aston Villa left his side facing a swift turnaround in their relegation fight. They host Newcastle United on Sunday.

"The players are not machines and they cannot deal with this kind of schedule," Pereira said, speaking to Nottingham Forest’s official website.

Forest had taken a 1-0 advantage into Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg at Villa Park, their first European semi-final since 1984. He made eight changes for Sunday’s trip to Chelsea, where the Reds won 3-1, but injuries then left them short.

Eight players were unavailable, while Morgan Gibbs-White, Dan Ndoye, Ibrahim Sangaré and Murillo were named on the bench. Only Murillo featured, and Villa advanced to face SC Freiburg in the Istanbul final.

"To compete for the final we only had three substitutes fit enough to play, and we took the risk with Murillo. He is not ready yet and it was very tough."

"Now it is important to win the battle until the end of the season and then we can think about building something to be back in European competition." "I hope our supporters understand that the players fought with everything they had."

Source: yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk