Fenerbahce (H) Europa League Playoff 26/02/26

Nottingham Forest 1-2 Fenerbahce

Hudson-Odoi 68'                         Akturkoglu 22', 48' (Pen)

In the first leg in Istanbul, Forest came away with a 3-0 lead, giving them a huge advantage at the City Ground. Fenerbahce would also be without their first choice goalkeeper, Ederson, and their favoured centre backs, making the comeback even more difficult. Everyone was confident the Reds would have an easy second leg and cruise into the round of 16. Well, apart from Forest fans. Memories of Yeovil would certainly be in their head.

Vitor Pereira’s first game in charge went exactly to plan last week. However, in his first league game in charge on the weekend, his side’s hearts were broken as Liverpool scored a 97^th minute winner. The Forest manager made six changes from this game, giving certain players an opportunity to play in front of him. Fenerbahce continued their unbeaten run in the league this season, drawing 1-1 at home against Kasimpasa. Tedesco made eight changes from this game but could only name seven out of eleven substitutes due to their injury crisis. They do sit in second in the Turkish Super Lig, two points behind Galatasaray. Across their history in all major European competitions, Fenerbahce have failed to progress in all their ties in any competition when losing the first leg of a knockout clash.

Forest started the game the dominant side, getting forward and creating opportunities. Despite this, it was the visitors who got the opening goal to decrease the deficit. The visitors looked to counter after cutting out Hutchinson’s cross. Both Morato and Murillo’s positioning was high meaning one pass past them had set up a two on one situation for Fenerbahce, Cunha the one back for Forest. Cherif led the charge before passing across to Akturkoglu when he reached the edge of the box. Williams almost intercepted the pass but he couldn’t quite get there. Arturkoglu took a few touches before firing into the bottom left corner from the edge of the six yard box. Fenerbahce are unbeaten in their last 48 major European games when taking the lead.

There was almost an instant response from the hosts. Hutchinson received the ball on the left before passing to Anderson who had made a run towards the byline. The midfielder got to the byline and looked to get into the box. He skipped past Aydin before shooting from a tight angle. The effort flashed across the face of goal and just wide of the far post.

The Reds continued to dominate but they couldn’t register a single shot on target in the first half. Fenerbahce’s opportunities were coming from Forest’s silly mistakes such as cheaply giving the ball away. Their closest chance to finding a second came from Cherif. Kante floated a pass over the top for Akturkoglu, opening up the Forest defence. Cunha was tight to him and he had his back towards goal, making it difficult for him to get a shot off. Instead, he back heeled it to Cherif whose first time finish was saved by the chest of Ortega. Forest are winless in their last 19 games at home across all competitions when going into the break a goal down.

Clearly disappointed with his team’s first half performance, Vitor Pereira made four changes, bringing on his regular starters. Despite this, Fenerbahce had the perfect chance for their second goal after Cunha gave away a penalty just 23 seconds after the restart. Aydin skipped past Williams down the right and pulled the ball back to Akturkoglu in the box. Cunha stepped in to try and make a challenge. One which the striker went down under, causing the referee to point to the spot. It was a soft penalty to give away, looking like the tiniest bit of contact between the two. Akturkoglu stepped up to take the penalty, rolling it down the middle. The nerves could definitely be felt around the City Ground now.

Cunha almost made immediate amends. He drove forward from his own half before finding Hutchinson. Hutchinson tried to find Jesus but the pass was intercepted by Kante. Luckily for the Reds, Cunha had made a run towards the right of the box so the interception landed straight to him. The angle was tight was Cunha took on the shot, only to be stopped by the outstretched leg of Cetin. The ball fell back to Dominguez on the edge of the box whose first time finish flashed just wide of the right post. Just minutes later, Williams was set up on the edge of the box but his strike curled just wide of the right post.

The Fenerbahce goal had woken Forest up and they managed to slow the game down. In this period, they also found a goal to stop it getting even nervier. Dominguez and Aina linked up down the right before Aina put a ball into the box. He may have slightly over hit it as it ran through to Hudson-Odoi on the other side of the area. His touch was perfect and it allowed him to set up to shoot towards the bottom right corner and score.

Forest continued to create chances in a bid to further extend their aggregate lead. Sangare turned over play on halfway before finding Hutchinson. He played Jesus through on goal but Cetin made himself big to make the save. Fenerbahce had no late answers and it was the Reds who had the best chance late on. Forest won the ball back on the edge of their own box. Anderson got his team up the field, shrugging off the challenge of Kante in the process. Once he was past the Frenchman, he played Hutchinson in behind the Fenerbahce defence. He got to the edge of the ‘D’ before shooting but Cetin got down to his left to parry the shot away and deny the winger his first goal in a Forest shirt.

Despite a nervy start to the second half, Forest managed to control the game and see themselves into the last 16. In this round, they will face Midtjylland, a team they faced in the league phase, losing 3-2 at the City Ground.

Forest never do things the easy way. In that first half, we were making silly mistakes and giving the ball away in our own half which ultimately put us under pressure. A poor mistake in our defence’s positioning is how we conceded that first. Conceding that penalty was far from ideal and personally I do not think it was a penalty. However, once we did, we were in complete control and we kept Fenerbahce at arm’s length as well as finding a goal for some breathing room. I think the half time substitutes also had something to do with this. When things weren’t going our way, the fans were turning and I understand we were losing on the night but the bigger picture is we were leading on aggregate. If the fans turn in the difficult moments when the players need us most, that will cause us to go down.

Forest: Ortega; Murillo (Aina 46’), Morato, Cunha, Williams; Anderson, Yates (Sangare 46’); Hutchinson, Dominguez (Gibbs-White 84’), McAtee (Hudson-Odoi 46’); Lucca (Jesus 46’)

Fenerbahce: Cetin; Muldur, Guendouzi, Demir; Brown (Mercan 76’), Yuksek, Kante, Aydin (Asensio 63’), Nene (Semedo 46’); Akturkoglu, Cherif (Ekici 76’)