Forest, Villa, Palace win but Celtic embarrassed again as Nancy nightmare continues | OneFootball

Sean Dyche has apparently entered ‘What a job he’s doing’ territory. Wilfried Nancy is a million miles from that after another Celtic disaster.

As always, there was plenty to watch on Thursday night thanks to the Europa League and Europa Conference League.

Here is a round-up of the results for Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen…

‘What a job Sean Dyche is doing at Forest’

‘Sean Dyche has won 6 of his 11 games in charge of Nottingham Forest. What a job he’s doing,’ Football on TNT Sports posted on X after Forest won 2-1 at FC Utrecht in the Europa League. We’re not sure that record meets the ‘What a job he’s doing’ threshold, though he’s certainly doing better than his predecessor.

Fresh off being comprehensively beaten by Everton on Saturday, Forest travelled to the Netherlands for a potentially tricky test against the side sitting seventh in the Eredivisie, and it proved to be exactly that.

It took an 88th-minute winner from Igor Jesus – his fourth goal in five Europa League appearances this season – to secure the three points that lifted the Premier League side to 11th in the Europa League standings.

That’s Dyche’s third win in four Europa games since replacing Ange Postecoglou, with victories over FC Porto, Malmo, and now Utrecht, plus a draw away to Sturm Graz, whose only win in the competition came against Rangers. Hardly an achievement, that, fellas.

‘What a job Dyche is doing in Europe’ passes the test. But he still needs to find more consistency in the Premier League – made tougher by the Thursday-Sunday schedule – though these Thursday night wins will go a long way toward building confidence and getting used to the winning feeling.

Villa win in Switzerland

Now third in the Europa League as well as the Premier League, Villa’s season keeps improving after a shocking start that made some question whether Unai Emery’s time at the club was coming to an end.

Goals from Evann Guessand and half-time substitute Youri Tielemans secured the win against a solid FC Basel side, who had equalised in the 34th minute through Flavius Daniliuc.

The result maintains the momentum for an in-form Villa side, who travel to West Ham on Sunday, having put themselves in a strong position to avoid a play-off and qualify automatically for the last 16.

Palace ease past massively inferior opposition

There was never any doubt that Crystal Palace would make light work of Shelbourne on Thursday night, even if they had already been upset by AEK Larnaca earlier in this season’s Europa Conference League.

That result in October was always going to act as a wake-up call. We said at the time that it actually made us more confident Palace would go far in Europe’s third-tier competition, and since that 1-0 home defeat they have only been narrowly beaten by league-phase pacesetters Strasbourg before travelling to Dublin this week aiming to close the gap on the top eight.

Their job was done by half-time thanks to goals from Christantus Uche, Eddie Nketiah and Yeremy Pino. Oliver Glasner knew it was job done and rested Pino, Adam Wharton and Daichi Kamada for the entire second half, with Manchester City on Sunday firmly in his mind.

It finished 3-0, lifting Palace up to ninth in the league-phase standings. There are some fairly average sides ahead of them like Rakow Czestochowa and Sparta Prague, but also some dangerous teams just behind, such as two-time losing finalists Fiorentina and AZ Alkmaar.

Next up are Finnish minnows Kuopion Palloseura at home, which will wrap up their league-phase campaign. They should be absolutely fine with a win, and anything less would obviously be a massive shock. A top-eight finish avoids two extra fixtures and, more importantly, secures their place in the last 16 of the Conference League – a competition they have a genuine chance of winning.

Celtic embarrassing vs Roma, Nancy nightmare continues

Celtic might already be regretting replacing interim manager Martin O’Neill with Wilfried Nancy. Their performance in Thursday’s 3-0 defeat to AS Roma was exactly as the scoreline suggests: pathetic.

Nancy began his reign at Celtic Park with a 2-1 home defeat to Scottish Premiership title rivals Hearts. He was defiant after criticism, but there was no response from his players against the Italian giants.

A sixth-minute Liam Scales own goal got the ball rolling before Celtic-linked striker Evan Ferguson scored two goals in the last 10 minutes of the first half. Arne Engels struck the post with a penalty before the break, and Kelechi Iheanacho had a goal disallowed in the second period, as did Roma substitute Leon Bailey, who looked to have rubbed salt in some pretty big green-and-white wounds.

Much has been made of Ferguson’s form this season, with it looking increasingly likely that he returns to parent club Brighton this summer, but he silenced a lot of critics with only his second and third goals of the campaign. When you’re feeling down as a supporter, it always feels like a kick in the teeth when a striker struggling for goals scores one against you, let alone two.

For Celtic, attention now turns to Sunday’s League Cup final against St Mirren. Such is the nature of the fixture, it was always going to be a huge game, and losing it could turn the majority of the fanbase against Nancy, even after only three games in charge.

Rangers look clueless in every European match

Robbie Keane was right, it would’ve been a tragedy if Ferencvaros hadn’t won that match. Not because they were amazing, but because Rangers were so bad… again.

Losing to a team in green and white will sting, especially when their manager is a former Celtic player. But neither of those things should be the biggest motivation to win; the biggest motivation is that they absolutely have to. Their Europa League form has been a disgrace, and they’re rightly sitting fourth-bottom in the league phase standings, ahead of only Malmo, Maccabi Tel Aviv and a Nice side in crisis.

They have two games left to salvage some pride, but based on how they’ve played in every Europa match this season – clueless, bereft of attacking intent and far too easy to play through – they don’t stand a chance. After five defeats in six, they somehow still have the slimmest chance of grabbing a play-off spot they don’t deserve.

At least they can take some solace in Celtic’s woes.

Aberdeen brave in defeat vs Strasbourg

A controversial disallowed goal will leave Aberdeen feeling hard done by after their 1-0 defeat to Conference League pacesetters Strasbourg, who also had a penalty saved by Dimitar Mitov in the second half.

There was scepticism about the 3-4-3 formation Jimmy Thelin used, but it actually worked quite well. Not well enough to mastermind a victory, but certainly well enough to leave Aberdeen feeling very unfortunate not to beat the best team in this season’s Conference League.

Their final match of the league phase is away to Sparta Prague, who sit sixth.

It has been a humbling experience for Aberdeen, but one that has been financially beneficial and has provided some spectacular away days for their supporters. They might have saved the best for last, too.