Official Europa League Quarter Final 2nd Leg Matchday Thread #14. Nottingham Forest v FC Porto 16/04/2026. 20:00 (UK time)

Forest v Porto

  • HOME WIN - Porto pummelled

    Votes: 30 83.3%

  • AWAY WIN - Pork and Cheese‘d

    Votes: 1 2.8%

  • Jose Mourinho

    Votes: 5 13.9%
  • Total voters
    36
  • Poll closed .
Trents said:
After the red card Ortega could have come sit next to me behind the goal for the rest of the half. All the action was at the other end of the pitch. It should have been put to bed by HT such was our dominance.

We've seen this show before though. Thank god we had found a goal. The longer the 2nd half went on the nervier we became. In the end, we're in the semi and that's all that really matters.

Porto have lost just 3 times all season, and we account for 2 of them.
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Yes. So dominant yet so frustrating.
 
Captain Sinister said:
Captain Sinister’s Match Report

It was Me Wot Won It! Match day routine resumed back to normal, with fish and chips from the Lady Bay Fish & Chip shop, followed by a stroll up Trent Boulevard to the ground, where I went in through my “lucky turnstile”, and with the knee incision healing nicely I was able to take my season ticket seat in Block R. MOK was sung with gusto and the game kicked off, on a mild and dry Thursday evening. 1 minute in and I experienced real Deja Vue, as did the Forest midfield, the Forest centre backs, and Stefan Ortega in goal, as the Porto centre forward was allowed to run through to go one on one with Ortega. As with the game in Portugal Ortega produced a blinding save to keep the score level at 0-0 (or 1-1, if you count the away leg as being the first half of the tie).

Forest didn’t capitulate like they did last Thursday, and on 7 minutes Chris wood received the ball on the centre spot, and a breakaway goal looked certain as Hutchinson was steaming through to Wood’s right, with the Porto defence over committed and playing a high line. Wood was about to lay the ball through for the face-creamed winger, but was hit with a late, high, studs-up tackle from former Southampton defender, Jan Bednarek, who caught Wood full on the knee, leaving stud marks and blood on the Forest talisman’s leg. Fortunately, it was Wood’s “good” knee, and not the one he had been sidelined with for 6-months, and after treatment from the Forest medical staff Wood was able to continue. During the delay to play while the injured player was treated, VAR directed the referee to go look at the incident on the pitch-side monitor. After reviewing the videos of the incident, the referee reached for his red card and Bednarek left the game for a very early bath.

The Porto fans were stunned into silence, and the City Ground faithful found their collective voice. Forest were driven on by the fans and responded brilliantly to Porto going down to 10-men with waves of attacking moves. 5 minutes after the sending off MOTM, Morgan Gibbs-White, worked himself an opening and drove from the edge of the box, aiming for the bottom near corner of the goal. The Porto keeper appeared to have the shot covered, but a wicked deflection diverted the low shot up into the top far side of the goal, and Forest took the lead 1-0 on the night, and 2-1 on aggregate. The jubilation for the team and Forest fans was a little subdued as Wood went down immediately the goal was scored, and was substituted, with Jesus joining the action. MGW and the lads celebrated the goal by unfurling Elliot Anderson’s No.8 shirt, with a message of solidarity with the young man, whose mother passed away on the eve of the match. Everyone’s sympathy rests with our “Geordie Maradonna” and we wish him well at this difficult time for him and his father and siblings.

Action resumed, and Forest sought to take more advantage from the visitors depleted numbers. Hutchinson was lively on the right, and Jesus was aggressive in leading the line. Numerous chances were created, with Ndoye just failing to get his head to a far post cross from Hutch, and then Dominguez glanced a header inches wide of the target. Murillo fired a shot from the edge of the box also inches wide, before taking responsibility to drive a direct free kick, but unfortunately it was less Louis McGugan, and more Louis Theroux in execution. Ndoye, who earlier couldn’t quite get his head on Hutchinson’s cross, was having a torrid time of it on the left. His opposing full-back picked up a yellow card midway through the half, but despite that Ndoye seemed unable to beat his man, and lost the ball on numerous occasions.

As the 2nd half got under way it was clear the Porto manager had instructed his players to have a go at Forest, and to stop Gibbs-White, who had had the freedom of the pitch throughout the first half. The crowd looked on anxiously as Porto played some beautiful neat technical football, pushing Forest back ever deeper. Sangare was on form, breaking up Porto’s play, but it felt like an equaliser, and extra time and penalties were becoming inevitable. A cross to the Forest far post saw a Porto header cannon off the underside of the crossbar (the crossbar, incidentally, being invented by NFFC back in football’s early days) and fortunately bounce down the right side of the goal line from Forest’s perspective. Another attempt on goal by Porto skimmed the top of the crossbar, and Forest were riding their luck when a rising shot from the left side of the box hit the face of the crossbar with ball being hooked away to safety.

Forest mounted a few breakaways, and Porto had their keeper to thank for 2 reflex saves, when we did manage to get decent shots towards goal. The home side’s fortunes dipped when first of all Murillo left the field with a knock on his ankle, aas did Hudson-Odoi moments later, who had looked lively after replacing Hutchinson at half-time.

When the referee blew the whistle for full time it was the home supporters who were most relieved. I had felt, as the game wore on, that it was Forest down to 10 men, and several players were looking leggy from around the 70-minute mark. Things would have been much easier on the eye for the home fans if the Forest wingers had really attacked the opposing fullbacks, and not kept on checking back when they had the opportunity to go down the outside. Our crossing, including from corner kicks, was woeful, and Porto’s 6 feet 7 inch goalie won’t have many easier games, the ball seeming to find his safe pair of gloved hands on too many occasions.

However, let’s not be churlish. Porto are a decent side, running away with the Portuguese Championship, and with players able to play quick, slick passing moves, they were able to make rapid progress when transitioning from defence to attack. Despite that, it is Forest who take a step nearer an Istanbul Final, but before Istanbul there is the little matter of beating Aston Villa over 2-legs. And that isn’t a “gimmee”, with Forest starting as significant underdogs.

Player ratings:

Ortega: 7 – other than that brilliant save in the 1st minute, Ortega had very little to bother him, despite the woodwork coming to Forest’s rescue on 2 or 3 occasions.

Williams: 8 – identified by many as our most dangerous attacking player, fullback Neco defended brilliantly again.

Murillo: 6 – seems to be having a spell of games where he isn’t playing quite as well as we know he is able.

Cunha: 7 – a welcome return for our young Brazilian centre back.

Aina: 7 – another solid performance from Ola.

Sangare: 8 – vital for us in keeping the Porto team at bay, particularly in that 2nd half when they were up for the fight to peg us back.

Dominguez: 7 – all action performance that could have sealed the tie if he had put that header away in the first half.

Hutchinson: 6 – sparkled in the 1st half, but picked up a silly yellow card, and Vitor made the right decision to replace him at half time.

Gibbs-White: 9 – brilliant MOTM 1st half, when he ran everything, resulting in him being man-marked in the 2nd.

Ndoye: 4 – oh dear… virtually everything he tried failed. Just not his night.

Wood: impossible to rate, given he was badly crocked on 7 minutes, and had to leave the field of play despite struggling on for another 5 minutes.

Substitutes:

Jesus (on for Wood): 5 – despite putting himself about he is there to score goals, and he just isn’t convincing in front of goal. Mind you the service he got was dire.

Hudson-Odoi (on for Hutchinson): 7 – made an instant impact when he replaced Hutchinson at half-time but limped off with an injury.

Milenkovic (on for Ndoye): 6 – came on to partner Murillo but was discombobulated when Murillo limped off 2 minutes later.

Morato (on for Murillo): 6 – possibly accounts for Milenkovic being a bit below par, but no brainstorms.

Bakwa (on for Hudson-Odoi): 5 – the most memorable moment was when he received a through-ball, ran onto it from the halfway line, and had not the slightest idea what to do when he got to the edge of the Porto box, pausing for an age and allowing defenders to cluster round him and take the ball off him with the ease of big lads stealing a little lad’s bike.

We have qualified for our first semi-final in a European competition for 42 years, and that in itself is a cause for jubilation. Hopefully the Villains don’t bung £27,000 to a bent referee in the away leg! Or the home leg for that matter 😊

Cheers all… see you Sunday for yet another game that could well be season-defining.
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Great post. Well summed up.
 
ubik said:
I once watched a Forest game while tripping. Windy, playing Boro who were running away with the second division (c 1974?) Every time either keeper took a goal kick, the wind sent it out for a throw-in.

Allende had been assassinated by the CIA in Chile and political prisoners were being held in football stadiums. Some loud gammon was bellowing away nearby, and I had a flash of him as a commandant and the crowd as prisoners, but it passed.

As we walked out into a gorgeous sunset over the Trent, I found it hard to believe the way Forest had blown away the league leaders. "4-1!" I said.

My mate pointed out it was actually 5-1 - I'd missed a Forest goal somewhere.
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AFC Bournemouth would like a word with the ref that allowed that game to happen.
 
Ohh what a night….. Made the cannon ball run from Germany very sweet.

Great support from the fans (very persistent singing in both halves - love it!) and whilst yes, there were a few moments where we could have conceded, we also had good chances. It’s football and I’ll take it every day and be happy to be with ya’ll, whether it’s Boundary Paaark or Istanbuuuuul!

Apology: I regret my prediction of 5-1 and if anyone placed a wager based on my prediction I would be more than happy to reimburse you on a 1-2-1 pound sterling to Turkish Lira basis. In Istanbul. In June.
 
All I want is a boat said:
Ohh what a night….. Made the cannon ball run from Germany very sweet.

Great support from the fans (very persistent singing in both halves - love it!) and whilst yes, there were a few moments where we could have conceded, we also had good chances. It’s football and I’ll take it every day and be happy to be with ya’ll, whether it’s Boundary Paaark or Istanbuuuuul!

Apology: I regret my prediction of 5-1 and if anyone placed a wager based on my prediction I would be more than happy to reimburse you on a 1-2-1 pound sterling to Turkish Lira basis. In Istanbul. In June.
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Excellent, I'm glad you said that because on the back of your prediction I went and placed a bet for 100,000,000TRY.
 
Ooh ok, I’m so financially buggered it won’t make a difference.
Commitment will be honoured of course, in Istanbul. (As a goodwill gesture, I will cancel the June date and replace it with May 20th).

Still trying to decide whether the whack the family season tickets on V12 rip off or credit card.
 
Apollo11 said:
Excellent, I'm glad you said that because on the back of your prediction I went and placed a bet for 100,000,000TRY.
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Somewhere, in one of the boxes of crap littering my garage, I have a bundle of one million lira notes, from my first trip to Türkiye, before they devalued the currency.

I used to use them to persuade the gullible that I was actually a millionaire. And by God some folk fell for It as well.
 
Strummer said:
Somewhere, in one of the boxes of crap littering my garage, I have a bundle of one million lira notes, from my first trip to Türkiye, before they devalued the currency.

I used to use them to persuade the gullible that I was actually a millionaire. And by God some folk fell for It as well.
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I assume by “some folk” you mean elegant young ladies?
 
Strummer said:
Somewhere, in one of the boxes of crap littering my garage, I have a bundle of one million lira notes, from my first trip to Türkiye, before they devalued the currency.

I used to use them to persuade the gullible that I was actually a millionaire. And by God some folk fell for It as well.
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This could help my nonsensical self-imposed debt, thank you x
 
Wes' Organ said:
Which stand are you in pal?

New comment, not related to Insanity!

I can't believe all you moaning fukcers, life throws enough shit at us all without actively seeking out reasons to be miserable!
We're in the semi final of a European competition and people are still trying to find a negative because we didn't look like prime Brazil.
The pub was absolutely rocking last night and I didn't hear anyone moaning about the performance, mind you, I did swerve one cnut who would have moaned given half the chance.
We fukcing won!
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I was back row of P, I got a warning before the game started, then 2nd half decided to do what I could to create an atmosphere, orange jackets come up, 2nd warning you're being recorded, pathetic really, the boards are bolted to the wall
 
KinAWorcs said:
Well that was nerve wracking last night! Got home about half midnight too as the M42 was shut (thank you HS2).

We really should have put that to bed in the first half with the chances missed. Certainly rode our luck second half.

The Porto fans megaphone was broken last night so it sounded like R2D2 was in the lower Bridgford
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I the think the first delay on M42 at first junction (where it changes from A42 to M42) was routine maintenance which involved a 20 minute diversion to the next junction at Tamworth services. But then we had the motorway down to one lane due to HS2 approaching Birmingham airport which created another 15 minute delay. Not sure which junction you turn off at but the M5 was down to one lane in two places .At least we didn't have the 60 minute delay in Clifton this time.
 
Colin Addison said:
I the think the first delay on M42 at first junction (where it changes from A42 to M42) was routine maintenance which involved a 20 minute diversion to the next junction at Tamworth services. But then we had the motorway down to one lane due to HS2 approaching Birmingham airport which created another 15 minute delay. Not sure which junction you turn off at but the M5 was down to one lane in two places .At least we didn't have the 60 minute delay in Clifton this time.
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I was ok for the M5- I get off at J.5. The pitfalls of moving away from Notts I suppose.
 
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