There was a sheepish look on Lucas Digne’s face and for the Portuguese referee, João Pinheiro, it was a case of reviewing whether the ball was out of play and not if the Aston Villa defender had handled inside the box. Even Digne wouldn’t dispute that bit. Digne naively raised both hands, presuming the ball would bounce out of play, but Omari Hutchinson kept the phase alive and Nottingham Forest were presented with a chance to strike the first blow in this Europa League semi-final.
Chris Wood made no mistake from 12 yards, his penalty flawless. Unai Emery tried to gesture for calm as Forest’s supporters went berserk and their players slowly moseyed back towards their half. For so long, it seemed Emiliano Martínez would be Villa’s hero, his improbable save to prevent Igor Jesus from scoring a first-half opener rivalling his stop to deny Nicolás Domínguez here last season, which earned him the Premier League’s save of the season accolade.
Martínez could not get his right hand to Wood’s penalty and by the end there were olés from the locals as Elliot Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White exchanged passes down the flank. For Villa, who host Tottenham on Sunday, it could be a long week before these sides renew their battle at Villa Park.
The City Ground was bathed in a warm glow before kick-off and once things got under way a hot atmosphere was guaranteed given this was a contest between Midlands rivals and favourites to lift the trophy in Istanbul in three weeks’ time. There is a generation of supporters from both teams who crave silverware in the form of a major trophy and, after this, that reality is just two games away. For Unai Emery, a record fifth Europa League title has long been the target while Evangelos Marinakis, Forest’s ambitious owner, began this season adamant the squad could go deep into the competition.
Villa can feel confident of qualifying for the Champions League through the Premier League, but Forest have eternally felt the heat of needing to simply stay in the division. European competition has proved somewhat liberating for Forest in the past couple of months, though, and Vítor Pereira named arguably his strongest available XI, with Ibrahim Sangaré absent through injury and Stefan Ortega replacing Matz Sels in goal. Ortega made the game’s first save, sprawling to his right to make a two-handed stop to prevent Youri Tielemans from finding the top corner and later saved low to deny Morgan Rogers after Ollie Watkins cleverly spread play.
For Villa, there was a major boost in that Amadou Onana was passed fit after a knee problem to start alongside Tielemans at the base of midfield in place of Lamare Bogarde, Emery’s sole change from defeat at Fulham last weekend. After an anxious start, this quickly developed into a frenetic game. Ola Aina, though, was typically cool, perhaps too composed when cushioning a header back to Ortega with Emiliano Buendía lurking. At the other end Ezri Konsa made a smart block to thwart Igor Jesus, who supported Wood in attack, and Buendía then headed away under pressure. Anderson was overzealous in the challenge on Watkins and was fortunate to escape punishment for catching the England striker on his ankle before claiming the ball.
The moment of the first half, however, was undeniably Martínez’s superb stop to prevent the hosts seizing the lead on 33 minutes. Anderson played a wonderful dinked pass behind the Villa back line for Morgan Gibbs-White and Gibbs-White squared the ball. Igor Jesus met the cross and while his attempt to side-foot the ball home was not as clean as he would have liked, it seemed it would be sufficient to ripple Martínez’s net. But the Argentina goalkeeper had other ideas, scrambling across his goal-line to keep the ball out, eventually smothering it as Igor Jesus shook his head in disbelief.
Emery predicted a “long game”, in other words a tight contest and things were finely balanced when the Villa manager was forced into a change nine minutes into the second half. Onana pulled up with a hamstring injury, one of his final actions heading clear after Anderson flighted a dangerous cross into the box for Wood. Villa came close to gaining the lead after the break, Ortega making an instinctive save to deny Watkins. Rogers, as he often does, looked to bend a left-foot shot into the far corner of goal and, going wide, Watkins attempted to divert the ball goalwards. Ortega was alert and repelled the ball with his right forearm.
Forest’s threat had subsided until Digne’s moment of madness. Gibbs-White’s cross from the left was sailing out of play, or so Digne thought, but Hutchinson refused to deem it a lost cause. The winger crossed from the byline and Digne raised both hands, expecting a goal-kick to follow. Then the video assistant referee, Tiago Martins, encouraged Pinheiro to review the incident on the pitch-side VAR monitor. Once the penalty was awarded, Wood hammered the spot-kick past Martinez to give Forest a potentially priceless advantage.