Sports
Confirmed line-ups for Europa League clash as Murillo returns
Nottingham Forest take on FC Utrecht tonight. Get all the team news here…
Nottingham Forest‘s hopes of securing a top-eight finish in the group phase of the Europa League would be enhanced enormously by a win in the Netherlands tonight.
Forest go into the game in 16th-place in the table having won two of their first five matches. They were very poor in losing 3-0 at Everton at the weekend and Sean Dyche will be looking for a significant improvement from his players.
The Tricky Trees have not conceded a goal in Europe since Dyche took charge and have a positive record against Dutch clubs, winning three of their previous four meetings. Forest have not won a match in the Netherlands since a 2-1 victory over PSV Eindhoven in 1983.
FC Utrecht, returning to the Europa League for the first time in 14 years, have found this season’s competition difficult.
They are still searching for their first win after collecting one point from their opening five fixtures. A home draw with Porto preceded a narrow defeat at Real Betis, leaving Utrecht in 32nd place and five points off the playoff positions with fixtures remaining against Forest, Genk and Celtic.
FC UTRECHT TEAM NEWS
Utrecht remain without midfielder Davy van den Berg due to injury, while Victor Jensen, Noah Ohio, Emirhan Demircan and Kolbeinn Finnsson are all unavailable because they were not included in the Europa League squad.
FC Utrecht: Barkas; Horemans, Eerdhuijzen, Didden, El Karouani; Engwanda, Zechiel, De Wit; Rodriguez, Haller, Cathline.
NOTTINGHAM FOREST TEAM NEWS
Nottingham Forest remain without the injured Ola Aina, Taiwo Awoniyi, Chris Wood and Angus Gunn. Gunn and Awoniyi are also ineligible along with Omari Hutchinson and Jair Cunha, who were not selected for the European squad.
Ryan Yates is out due to a hamstring injury sustained against Everton while goalkeeper Matz Sels has been left at home with one eye on the weekend game with Spurs.
Sean Dyche has made nine changes from the side beaten 3-0 at Everton last time out. John Victor replaces Sels in goal, while Zack Abbott, Murillo and Oleksandr Zinchenko replace Nicolo Savona, Nikola Malenkovic and Neco Williams in the back four.
Elliott Anderson, Ibrahim Sangare drop out as Nicolas Dominguez, Douglas Luiz and James McAtee form part of a midfield four, with Morgan Gibbs-White also omitted.
Callum Hudson-Odoi and Arnaud Kalimuendo replace Hutchinson and Igor Jesus.
Nottingham Forest: John; Abbott, Murillo, Morato, Zinchenko; Dominguez, Douglas Luiz, McAtee, Ndoye; Hudson-Odoi, Kalimuendo.
How to watch Utrecht v Nottingham Forest: TV channel, online live streams
Kick-off on Thursday is at 20:00 GMT (15:00 ET / 12:00 PT). Live TV coverage in the UK is on TNT Sports 1 and the discovery+ app.
TNT Sports costs £29.99 a month through discovery+, which includes Eurosport and entertainment and is available on a vast range of devices including smart TVs and gaming consoles.
FC Utrecht v Nottingham Forest stats
- This is the first match between the teams
- Utrecht’s only previous matches against an English team are a pair of 0-0 draws against Liverpool in the 2010/11 Europa League group stage
- They have lost only one of their last 17 European matches at home (W7 D9)
- Midfielder Alonzo Engwanda had made the joint-fifth most tackles (14) of any player in this season’s competition after Matchweek 5
- Behind Feyenoord (18), Utrecht (17) have taken the second-most home points in this season’s Eredivisie, winning five and losing one of their eight games
- Forest have won three of their four matches against Dutch teams (L1)
- The most recent of those came against PSV in the second round of the 1983/84 UEFA Cup, Forest winning 2-1 in Eindhoven and 1-0 in Nottingham
- The Premier League side have lost three of their last 12 European matches (W5 D4)
- None of Forest’s last three Europa League opponents have scored against them
- Only Lyon (88.6%), Celta and Aston Villa (both 88.2%) and GNK Dinamo (86.6%) had achieved a higher passing accuracy than Forest (86.4%) before Thursday’s matches
