Nottingham Forest Beat Porto to Storm into European Semi-Finals for First Time in 42 Years

Nottingham Forest got the better of 10-man Porto to move into the semi-finals of a European competition for the first time since 1984, where they will now meet Premier League side Aston Villa.

After a 1-1 draw in Portugal last week, Morgan Gibbs-White struck the only goal at the City Ground, setting up an all-English UEFA Europa League semi-final against Villa later this month.

Porto came into the game with a poor record in England, having gone 24 matches without a win on English soil, which also included a 2-0 defeat to Forest in October.

Their challenge became tougher very early on when Jan Bednarek was shown a red card in the 8th minute for a high tackle on Chris Wood. From that point, Forest made the most of their European run, using it as a break from their league problems, and soon took the lead through Gibbs-White.

He met a pass from Neco Williams and finished past Diogo Costa, with the shot taking a slight touch off Pablo Rosario, who had dropped into defence after the sending-off.

Forest stayed on the front foot and looked for a second goal, creating chances before the break through Omari Hutchinson, Murillo, and Nicolas Dominguez.

Porto did try to respond after half-time and came close in the 56th minute when William Gomes struck the crossbar from the back post area. Unfortunately, their efforts didn’t produce positive results, as Forest held their nerves to maintain the lead and finish the tie by 2-1 on aggregate. They have now entered the European semis after a big gap of 42 years, so fans are expecting them to create another history in the semifinals.