Aston Villa – Nottingham Forest

In Birmingham, the home side will find it difficult to secure a convincing victory.

Following the first leg of the Europa League semi-final between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest, the intrigue of this English clash has spiraled to the limit. Initially the Birmingham club was seen as the favorite of this pair, as well as the favorite of the entire tournament. A defeat in Nottingham somewhat clouded the bookmakers' and football experts' outlook. Moreover, the Forest hit the peak of their form at the most opportune moment of the season, something that cannot be said about Villa. However, writing off Aston Villa after an away defeat by a narrow margin would be a grave mistake. Here lies the genius of coach Unai Emery, who for the seventh time in his career is taking part in the semifinal stage of European tournaments and four times has lifted the Europa League trophy with Spanish clubs that possessed scarcely any less depth in the squad than today's Aston Villa. In this regard, Emery's opponent at Nottingham Forest's experience appears meager. At the same time, Vitor Pereira, in a short period, has managed to extract from Nottingham Forest a level of football that this season had not been achieved by any of his three predecessors, which is why the Forest can look threatening even in Birmingham. Bookmakers have named the home side the favorites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 1.75 on their victory. The fate of the first leg was decided by a penalty awarded to Aston Villa in the 71st minute of the match. It was converted by the veteran Chris Wood. Statistically, the teams were roughly equal. This year, this was the third meeting between the teams. In January, Aston Villa beat Nottingham 3-1 at home, and three and a half weeks ago the match on the Forest's ground finished 1-1. As we can see, Pereira's Nottingham Forest lost the only one of the three encounters with Villa when the Portuguese coach was not yet in charge. And January's Nottingham Forest is hard to compare with the one that is now on a five-match winning streak with a total goal difference of 14:2. Undoubtedly, Emery will have a brilliant plan for the match, but his team's three defeats since April 25 may indicate that the players might not implement that plan.