Nottingham Forest head to Porto tomorrow trying to strike a balance between continuing their European adventure and Premier League survival.
The international break came at the wrong time for boss Vitor Pereira following their hugely impressive 3-0 win at fellow strugglers Tottenham on March 22.
Since then, Pereira has seen most of his squad depart for national team duties, preventing him from trying to build momentum.
They resume their season in Portugal by taking on Porto in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final. In an ideal world, this would be a wonderful occasion for the club and its supporters and they would be going all out to claim a win to bring back to the City Ground.
But with a crunch Premier League clash at home to Aston Villa looming on Sunday it is likely to be a makeshift XI that take the field at the Estádio do Dragão.
The teams met earlier in the season with Forest winning a matchday three contest in the league phase 2-0.
Porto lead the Primeira Liga by five points from Sporting CP, who have a game in hand. They suffered a surprising setback at the weekend when they could only manage a 2-2 draw at home to Famalicao.
Porto coach Francesco Farioli said of the Forest clash: “It will be a big challenge but with the right awareness, the right mentality and the right spirit, we believe we can play our cards right against them.”
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Team news for FC Porto v Nottingham Forest
Rodrigo Mora trained today and will be available despite coming off during the weekend draw with Famalicao. Nehuen Perez is not fit enough to play after undergoing Achilles surgery in September while forwards Samu Aghehowa and Luuk de Jong remain sidelined.
Forest are without England midfielder Elliot Anderson due to suspension. Ola Aina and Omari Hutchinson are fit despite skipping an open training session at the weekend but will start on the bench with Pereira prioritising the Premier League.
Predicted line-ups for FC Porto v Nottingham Forest
Porto: D Costa: A Costa, Bednarek, Kiwior, M Fernandes; Froholdt, Varela, Mora; Pepe, W Gomes, Moffi
Forest: Ortega; Williams, Milenkovic, Morato, Abbott; Yates, Sangare; Dominguez, McAtee, Bakwa; Awoniyi.
Where to watch FC Porto v Nottingham Forest: TV and online streams
Kick-off on Thursday is at 8pm UK time. In the UK, live coverage is on TNT Sports 2. Streaming is on the Discovery Plus app.
TNT Sports costs £30.99 a month, including Eurosport and entertainment and available on a vast range of devices including smart TVs and gaming consoles. From March 26, TNT Sports streaming will switch from Discovery Plus to HBO Max.
If you don’t live in the UK, click HERE to find out where to watch the game in your region.
Stats for FC Porto v Nottingham Forest
- Porto are unbeaten in seven Europa League matches (W5 D2), winning the three most recent
- The Portuguese team have won all their five home Europa League games this season, scoring in the first half of all of them
- Forest have won 18 of their 23 two-legged European ties
- The Nottingham side have lost only two of their last nine away matches in UEFA competition (W4 D3), winning three of the four most recent games (L1)
Prediction for FC Porto v Nottingham Forest
FC Porto
3
–
1
Nottingham Forest
This would be a difficult game for Forest with their first-choice XI, never mind a weakened team.
Porto will be eager to set down a marker ahead of the return game and we think they run out routine winners.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: 101greatgoals.com
