SC Braga (A) 22/01/26

 

SC Braga 1-0 Nottingham Forest

Yates OG 54'

 

The last away game of the Europa League league phase. A trip to Portugal. You might expect sun, shorts and sunnies but instead Reds’ fans were packing umbrellas and ponchos to prepare for storm Ingrid. This didn’t stop the brilliant atmosphere throughout the day as the bars overflowed. Let’s just hope the team had made the trip worth it and get closer to automatically qualifying for the round of 16.

Going into the game, Braga were sat in 7th on 13 points, having only lost once in the competition so far. Their last outing saw them take three points away from Nice. Manager Carlos Vicens made six changes from their Primeira Liga game away at Tondela where an injury time penalty won them the game. Forest have also only lost once in the competition so far but having suffered one more draw than their opponents, they were sat in 14th on 11 points. Last time out in the tournament, the Reds visited Utrecht where they won 2-1 to give themselves their first away win in Europe since 1995. Sean Dyche made seven changes from his side’s resilient draw against Arsenal. They named no recognised striker in their squad so Ndoye was thrown down the middle. Dyche has won three and drawn one of his first four Europa League games and he had the chance to become the first Englishman to win four of their first five in the competition. This is the two sides first ever competitive meeting.

The first half was not one that anybody would want to watch back again. The only interesting action of that 45 was a good effort for both sides. Forest’s chance came early on as Gibbs-White’s free-kick from 25 yards, looped over the wall and looked to be heading for the top left corner but Hornicek got across well to parry it away. The host’s opportunity came later on in the half. Gomez whipped a ball into the area from the right where Martinez had run off the back of Savona, allowing him to have a free header at goal. His effort had Sels routed but luckily for the Reds, the ball flashed just wide of the left post. Forest dominated the whole half as Braga looked passive but Dyche’s side seemed to lack any directness. The visitors would definitely believe their opponents were there for the taking in the second half. The fans would also want to see a reaction as they sent the players down the tunnel with boos.

Just minutes after half-time, Forest were given the perfect opportunity to take the lead. Gibbs-White saw the run of McAtee at the back post and fired in a cross for him. However, before McAtee could get to the ball, he was pulled back by Martinez, resulting in the referee pointing to the spot. Gibbs-White stood over the ball and hit the spot-kick towards the bottom right corner. Unfortunately for him, Hornicek guessed the right way and due to the lack of pace behind the ball, the ‘keeper could make the save before his teammates cleared.

If you had to sum Nottingham Forest up, it would be these 54 seconds: missing a penalty and then conceding an own goal up the other end. Braga broke down the right, exchanging some lovely passes. The ball ended up on the edge of the box with Navarro who found the run of Horta down the right of the box with a backheel. Horta managed to easily wriggle past Milenkovic and pull a ball across the box into the danger area. No Braga player was there waiting but Yates couldn’t get his feet out the way and the ball rolled into the bottom left corner. The Forest captain tried to scoop the ball out but it was already over the line.

This woke Forest up slightly and they almost got themselves level in an unexpected manner. Aina took on a strike from 30 yards but his effort crashed off the crossbar. Just minutes later, the hosts hit the woodwork themselves. From the right, Rodrigues found Horta in the box who played a backheel pass for Victor. He took a touch before firing a shot towards goal but his strike rattled off the right post.

As the game drew to a close, Forest pushed for an equaliser but it was too late. Their closest moment to levelling came from Yates. From the left, Williams whipped in a cross towards the back post for Ndoye. The Swiss looked to put the ball across the six yard box for a Yate’s tap in but his first time cross was blocked by Carvalho. It landed back to Ndoye who tried again to find Yates but the ‘keeper saved at the front post. On the third try, he lofted the ball towards the edge of the six yard box where Yates’ header sailed just over the bar.

In injury time, Forest’s night went from bad to worse. Elliot Anderson turned to the referee and said something in his face, resulting in the Croatian pulling out a straight red card. This means he will miss the Reds’ last league phase game at home to Ferencvaros next week. After the final whistle, the Forest players and coaching staff were greeted with toxicity from the away end. Boos, chants and swearing told the story of the night. Forest sit 15th looking set to get playoffs whilst Braga sit 5th.

Last Thursday was completely unacceptable. Braga didn’t even register a shot on target the entire game and they were completely there for the taking but we just didn’t show up. We were too slow and not direct and most of the players looked unbothered apart from Gibbs-White. We weren’t helped by the fact we had no striker but Ndoye was making runs down the channels and people weren’t finding him. We looked more like 11 individuals then a team. This puts us in an unlikely position to qualify automatically as we need other results to go our way but we still need to win against Ferencvaros to finish as high up the table as possible.

 

SC Braga: Hornicek; Arrey-Mbi, Niakate (Carvalho 46’), Lagerbielke; Martinez (Lelo 85’), Grillitsch (Moutinho 62’), Gorby, Gomez; Rodrigues, Navarro (Victor 62’), Horta (Dorgeles 62’)

Forest: Sels; Aina (Williams 68’), Morato, Milenkovic, Savona; Bakwa (Dominguez 75’), Yates (Sangare 83’), Douglas Luiz (Anderson 68’), McAtee (Hudson-Odoi 68’); Gibbs-White, Ndoye