Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa will meet at the City Ground for a Premier League fixture on Sunday.
Both teams were in Europa League quarter-final action on Thursday. Forest, who drew 1-1 at Porto, are scrapping for top-flight survival. Villa, 3-1 winners in Bologna, are in the hunt for Champions League qualification.
Forest’s Fight for Premier League Survival
Forest benefited from an extraordinary own goal in Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final first leg at Porto. A long-range back-pass from Martim Fernandes beat Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa, helping Forest claim a 1-1 draw.
Vitor Pereira’s decision to rest first-team regulars Neco Williams, Nikola Milenkovic, Ibrahim Sangare, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Igor Jesus underlined the importance of Sunday’s home fixture against Aston Villa.
West Ham’s 4-0 win over Wolves on Friday turned up the heat on survival rivals Forest. They must be more proactive against Villa than they have been in recent home games.
Their last five Premier League results at the City Ground were goalless stalemates against Arsenal, Wolves and Fulham, a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace and a 1-0 defeat to Liverpool, whose winner came in injury-time. Forest also lost 1-0 to Midtjylland in the home leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.
Villa Aim to Extend Top-Five Advantage
Unai Emery took another step towards a fifth Europa League title as an Ollie Watkins brace fired Villa to a 3-1 first-leg win in Bologna. However, the hosts had 19 shots to Villa’s eight, hitting the crossbar through Lewis Ferguson.
Emery’s men lost 4-1 to Chelsea and 3-1 to Manchester United in the league before a comprehensive 2-0 home victory over West Ham.
Villa won January’s reverse fixture 3-1. Like Forest, they need to push for maximum points on Sunday.
The visitors would love to extend their advantage over top-five rivals Liverpool and Chelsea. They look far more cohesive in attack with Youri Tielemans and John McGinn back from injury.
Players to Watch
- Forest full-back Williams came on at half-time against Porto but he should be restored to the starting 11.
- Williams averages 1.2 attempts at goal per 90 minutes in the Premier League this term.
- He fired ten shots across his last three home games against Wolves, Liverpool and Fulham.
Both clubs had European away games on Thursday night.