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Watkins opens scoring to level tie at Villa Park
Forest held 1-0 lead from first leg
Winner will face Freiburg or Braga in final
Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Dion Dublin
Former Aston Villa striker on BBC Radio 5 Live at Villa Park
Forest need a bit of steel and someone to break things up. Yates is club skipper, he is exactly what they need. He's the first one out and he's not even on the pitch yet and he's giving out instructions. He's a leader and that's what they need.
Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Forest get the second half under way.
HT: Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Forest bring on captain Ryan Yates for James McAtee at half-time.
HT: Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Aston Villa have won all but one of the 12 previous home games in which they have led at half-time in all competitions this season, with that exception a 3-1 defeat by Newcastle in February.
HT: Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Not long to go until the second half now. Can Villa keep it going?
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Forest need Sangare to strengthen the midfield to give Wood or Jesus a chance. And to stop messing on the ball in defence.
Cam
Image source, Getty ImagesClick 'Get Involved' to have your say
Where was this Villa at the weekend!?
Daniel, Frustrated West Ham fan
HT: Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Dion Dublin
Former Aston Villa striker on BBC Radio 5 Live at Villa Park
It's been a good game. The energy has been great. The noise levels have been outstanding. Villa have just pipped it so far. Good quality, good energy and very well organised. We haven't seen Forest at their best yet, and Wood has been isolated, but we've still got time.
Crystal Palace lead Shakhtar Donetsk 4-2 on aggregate at the break (1-1 on the night) in their Conference League semi-final.
HT: Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Forest boss Vitor Pereira will be happy with the chance to give his team a bit of a reset now. They were getting pummelled.
Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
The tie is level but Villa feel very much on top as the half-time whistle goes.
Image source, Getty ImagesAston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Youri Tielemans whips in a free-kick but Stefan Ortega plucks it out of the sky.
Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Feels like the only time Forest players are getting near Villa is when they foul them. Jair Cunha is booked for a nasty foul on Emiliano Buendia.
Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Poor pass from Emiliano Buendia this time as he tries to find Ollie Watkins on the edge of the box.
Freiburg 2-0 Braga (agg 3-2)
Victor Gomez very nearly pulled a goal back for Braga, but the 26-year-old could only find the inside of the post after rounding Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu.
Rodrigo Zalazar was first to the rebound, but his follow-up effort was blocked.
That was the last action of the first half in Germany.
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Villa have to get the second before half time stops the flow.
John, Northampton
Image source, Getty ImagesAston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Forest boss Vitor Pereira has been writing notes furiously on his notepad. Big half-time team talk for him.
Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Four minutes added on. Think we all expected a bit more.
Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Dion Dublin
Former Aston Villa striker on BBC Radio 5 Live at Villa Park
Aston Villa are loading that midfield up with Lindelof, so Wood is having to drop back too and he is not having a lot of chance to stay up in the centre forward position out of possession. There's a lot of bodies in there and that is creating plenty of space on the wings.
Aston Villa 1-0 Nottingham Forest (agg 1-1)
Nottingham Forest have not had a shot on target so far in this game.
Image source, PA MediaManager:Unai Emery
Formation:4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager:Vítor Pereira
Formation:4 - 4 - 1 - 1
Manager:Unai Emery
Formation:4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager:Vítor Pereira
Formation:4 - 4 - 1 - 1
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Aston Vila are unbeaten in each of their last 10 meetings with Nottingham Forest at Villa Park across all competitions (W7 D3), since a 2-0 loss in the Premier League in October 1994 under Ron Atkinson.
Nottingham Forest are unbeaten in each of their three European games against fellow English opposition, keeping a clean sheet each time (W2 D1) – their only previous away match was at Anfield versus Liverpool in the 1978-79 European Cup first round, drawing 0-0.
Aston Villa have won each of their last nine home games in major European competition, since a 0-0 draw with Juventus in last season’s UEFA Champions League; the Villans have also scored in 31 of their last 32 matches at Villa Park in such competitions, with that goalless draw the sole exception.
Nottingham Forest are looking to reach a third major European final after, the 1978-79 and 1979-80 European Cups – the Tricky Trees have only been eliminated from one of their last 13 knockout stage ties when winning the first leg, with that the 1983-84 UEFA Cup semi-final against Anderlecht.
Aston Villa are aiming to reach a second major European final, after the 1981-82 European Cup; the last team to overturn a first leg deficit in a major European tie against an opponent from the same nation as them were Atlético de Madrid vs Barcelona in the 2015-16 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals (1-2 away 1st leg, 2-0 home 2nd leg).
No team have recorded more clean sheets in the 2025-26 UEFA Europa League than both Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest (7), both keeping a joint-high three in the knockout stages; the Tricky Trees restricted the Villans to an xG of 0.8 in the first leg, their second lowest tally in a knockout stage game this term (0.5 away to Lille).
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has only once before lost both legs of a knockout stage tie in the UEFA Cup/Europa League, with Valencia against Atlético de Madrid in the 2011-12 semi-finals. In fact, that was the last two-legged tie the Spaniard was eliminated from in this competition, progressing from 22 in a row since.
In the first leg of this tie, Nottingham Forest’s Omari Hutchinson recorded the most dribbles (10), created the most chances (4) and had the joint-second most shots (3) – he was the first player to post each of those figures in a UEFA Europa League game since Athletic Club’s Nico Williams vs Roma in last season’s round of 16.
Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers has been directly involved in five goals in six home appearances in this season’s UEFA Europa League (2 goals, 3 assists), while he has also scored (1) or assisted (1) in his last two outings at Villa Park against Nottingham Forest in all competitions.
Nottingham Forest’s Igor Jesus has been directly involved in the most away goals in this season’s UEFA Europa League (5 – 4 goals, 1 assist) – he has also had the most shots (34), shots on target (16) and posted the highest xG figure (6.7) in the competition overall this term.
