Ola Aina’s Nottingham Forest Through to S’final

Three Super Eagles were in action last night at City Ground as Ola Aina’s Nottingham Forest beat FC Porto aggregate 2-1 to reach the Europa League semi finals.

Zaidu Sanusi and Terem Moffi failed to find range as 10-man Porto exited the competition at the quarterfinal stage. Taiwo Awoniyi was not even dressed in the Forest line up.

It was the first time since 1984 thatNottingham Forest  will advance to the semi-finals of a European competition. They will face Premier League rivals Aston Villa. Villa crushed Italian side Bologna 4-0 last night in addition to the 3-1 victory they had earlier recorded last week.

After Nottingham Forest’s last week’s 1-1 draw in Portugal, Morgan Gibbs-White scored the only goal at the City Ground to set up a mouth-watering final-four tie with Villa later this month.

Porto had failed to win any of their previous 24 matches on English soil, including a 2-0 defeat to Forest in October.

The task became even tougher for the Portuguese side when Jan Bednarek was sent off after just eight minutes for a high challenge on Chris Wood.

Referee Danny Makkelie had initially decided against booking the former Southampton and Aston Villa defender before the video assistant referee recommended an on-field review.

RESULTS 

Celta Vigo 1-3 Freiburg 

(Aggregate 1-6)

Aston Villa 4-0 Bologna 

(Aggregate 7-1)

Betis 2-4 Braga

(Aggregate 3-5)

Nottingham 1-0 Porto

(Aggregate  2-1)