Source: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nVilla remain on course to qualify for next season\u2019s Champions League via a top-five finish in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
But crashing out against Forest would sting, given Villa haven\u2019t won a major trophy since the 1996 League Cup, while their last major continental final was the iconic 1982 European Cup triumph against Bayern Munich. <\/p>\n
Villa threatened in the frantic early stages when Youri Tielemans\u2019 long-range blast forced a good save from Stefan Ortega.<\/p>\n
They were quickly back on the attack as Ollie Watkins picked out Morgan Rogers for a curler that Ortega saved at full stretch.<\/p>\n
Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson escaped a red card for his ugly tackle on Watkins, and Villa boss Unai Emery slammed the decision not to send him off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe VAR is so, so bad,\u201d he said after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a clear red card, I don\u2019t understand why the VAR is not calling the referee because it\u2019s so clear. It\u2019s a huge, huge mistake. VAR is responsible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe referee, fantastic, fantastic job, 10 out of 10, I appreciated how he managed the match for 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I watched it back. Wow. Huge. He could break his ankle. VAR where are you? It is your responsibility, we are professionals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so clear for everybody. He could break his ankle. It\u2019s not fair.\u201d <\/p>\n
The hosts gradually found their stride after the early Villa assault. <\/p>\n
Anderson\u2019s deft chipped pass reached Morgan Gibbs-White and his cross found Igor Jesus for a close-range volley that Emiliano Martinez repelled with a brilliant one-handed stop. <\/p>\n
Watkins should have turned in Rogers\u2019 shot early in the second half, but the striker miscued his effort straight at Ortega from five yards. <\/p>\n
There was little to separate the teams and when the opening goal arrived in the 71st minute it came with a helping hand from Digne. <\/p>\n
Omari Hutchinson chased an overhit cross and hooked it back in play just before the ball crossed the byline, with Digne foolishly sticking his arm up to block it. <\/p>\n
A VAR check confirmed the ball hadn\u2019t gone out of play and Wood stepped up to lash the penalty past Martinez.<\/p>\n
The City Ground was rocking and Emery immediately hauled off the hapless Digne, sending on Jadon Sancho, Douglas Luiz and Ian Maatsen. <\/p>\n
But Forest held firm to secure a victory that took them to the verge of an historic achievement. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one leg of the tie,\u201d Wood told TNT Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to have the advantage but going to Villa Park will be a tough game. They\u2019re good at their place. But we\u2019ve done the job here at home and now hopefully we\u2019ll build into next week.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nottingham Forest seized the advantage in their Europa League semi-final against Aston Villa as Chris Wood\u2019s penalty sealed a 1-0 win in the first leg on Thursday. Wood netted from the spot in the second half after a needless handball by Villa defender Lucas Digne in the all-English clash at the City Ground. The New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-241210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}