Late goals from Nikola Milenkovic and Anthony Elanga secured victory Nottingham Forest in this fight the winners of the previous European Cup and they avoided the places above Manchester City in the Champions League.
Silva continued their best start to a season in three decades when they came back from Jhon Duran to open the scoring for Villa, who are now in their last five winners. Supreme League the games that followed their Champions League match.
So Forest, celebrating 5,000 league fixtures, can claim fourth place, at least until they play Manchester City on Sunday afternoon. This season, Nuno Espírito Santo built on his impressive victories at Anfield and Old Trafford, taking them to eight league wins already this season. Last season, that took them to 36 games.
The old Earth City was rocking to its core as, after a tight first period in which Nuno’s powers negated the village’s powers, the forest spirit took them to new heights. Finishing in the top four is stretching credulity, but they are deservedly there now.
After Duran headed in the 11th of his season, Foresta thought they had equalized in the 81st minute when the video assistant referee almost three minutes later decided that Elanga had been put on the half-shoulder when he ran a pass to Morgan Gibbs-White before passing for Chris Wood to score. But they did pull one back when Milenkovic scored his first Premier League goal in Saturday’s final win over United, curling home a header from Cross Gibbs-White from the right.
Six minutes later, Elanga completed the comeback when he headed home from close range after another flowing move.
Tyrone Mings was put on the ice for the second league start of the season when, unwell in the warm-up, he had to be replaced by Pau Torres. But while Villa’s defensive shape remained unchanged, the fluidity of the midfield forced Forest into an unaccustomed care with possession.
With John McGinn tucking in from a narrow position to the left, Ola Aina, the right back of Forest, followed him inside, obliging the recalled midfielder Nicolás Domínguez to fill the space outside where Lucas Digne can be so productive.
Duran, again in the Premier League with Ollie Watkins not fully fit, flew over one speculative volley, but, mortified in the first half, Forest gradually began to make some progress. In the first three decades behind them and a place in the top four power forward, Silva was not confident. Their gameplan to shut down Villa seemed to be working. At the other end, Wood headed for center Neco Williams across the face of goal, but Diego Carlos cleared before Domínguez could hope to capitalise.
Elliot Anderson cut his way down the inside left channel only for his shot to deflect off Boubacar Kamara. Crossing to the other side to take a corner, Anderson’s delivery was headed just wide from distance by Murillo.
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Villa, legs tested but morale from a midweek win over RB Leipzig, which would have qualified them almost automatically for the last 16 of the Champions League, are back in contention. Another referee than Sam Barrott would have given them a penalty when Anderson pulled Morgan Rogers’ shirt as he ran onto the field. Ezri Konsa was unlucky as McGinn’s header from a long-range free kick was just wide.
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Some of the technical exchanges between the two coaching teams were reflected in the first half of the two significant contributions from Duran. First, the Colombian missed his volley completely when McGinn found him a clear corner at the back. But then he immediately responded by spinning around and sending an overhead kick into the back of the net.
His end is preceded by one of the most wonderful things: you will see a savior at this time. After Gibbs-White knocked on Anderson’s corner, Domínguez headed in from about four yards out. The ball appeared to go below and beyond Emiliano Martínez, but he somehow stretched back to bring the ball down to the line. It is clear that Carlos was cut down by the rebound.
The importance of being safe in minutes is emphasized. Town played an excellent possession game on the edge of the Forest box, from right to left, from Rogers to Duran, to McGinn, to Dean, and inside to McGinn, whose cross was expertly covered by Duran for the third goal. in a week