Aston Villa (A) 05/04/25

 

Aston Villa 2-1 Nottingham Forest

Rogers 13'                  Jota Silva 57'

Malen 15'

 

3rd v 7th. 9 points between the sides. Both fighting it out for a Champions League place next season. Both previous winners of the trophy. A huge game in this European race as the East Midlands meets the West Midlands.

Back at the City Ground in December, Forest scored 2 late goals after being behind to seal the 3 points. Nikola Milenkovic got the equaliser in the 87th minute and Anthony Elanga netted the winner in the 93rd minute to send Reds’ fans wild. However, they have not won at Villa Park for 31 years and the Villains have only lost once at home all season. To add to an already difficult task, Nuno’s side would be without both a striker and a left back. With one eye on PSG in the Champions League, midweek, Villa made 8 changes.

The dangers were already apparent early on from the hosts. Maatsen was denied by Sels and Asensio’s reaching effort bounced just wide of the left post. Forest couldn’t control the early threat on their goal and the hosts were 1-0 up. Amadou Onana played the ball to Tielemans from a free-kick deep into their own half. The Belgian looked up and saw the run of Morgan Rogers in behind the Forest defence. The ball was well controlled by Rogers as he carried on driving towards goal before finishing between the legs of Matz Sels and into the bottom right corner. Morato was seen messing with his shin pad as the ball was played over the top which allowed the England international to get beyond him. Just two minutes later and Villa had doubled their lead. Tielemans played the ball to Maatsen on the right but with wing-back Dominguez dragged into the middle of the field, Yates was left to cover. Maatsen had the midfielder spinning before getting beyond him to drive a ball across the face of goal where Donyell Malen was waiting to poke home. Neco Williams didn’t realise the Dutch man was over his shoulder until it was too late.

Forest have lost all of their previous 78 Premier League games when they’ve trailed by two or more goals so getting back into the game was going to be an uphill battle. This season, Nuno’s side are not used to conceding such poor goals so early on in a game. They did come close to pulling one back through Elanga. The visitors cleared a Villa attack and Elanga was sent away on the counter-attack. He managed to wriggle away from Garcia as he drove into the box, but his shot rolled inches wide of the right post. Rogers tried to get Villa up the pitch, but his pass was intercepted by Ryan Yates who passed to Callum Hudson-Odoi. He advanced into the box and created a shooting angle but just like his teammate, he saw his low effort roll just past the left post.

Forest came out in the second half a different side. They were enjoying the majority of possession and creating some good chances. Gibbs-White lofted in a ball over the top which he looked to have misplaced and put behind for a goal kick but Hudson-Odoi recycled. He passed back to Williams who drifted inside to create a better shooting angle; his effort fired wide. Moments later, substitute Jota Silva was driving forward, shrugging off Tyrone Mings. He passed out to Hudson-Odoi on the left who recreated his chance from the first half, however the outcome was the same.

Jota Silva had played a key role in the change of the Reds from that disastrous first half and he was the one to decrease the deficit. Neco Williams had the ball out on the left and passed the ball into the box. It looked to be Elliot Anderson’s but Jota Silva took it off his feet. He turned and managed to curl his foot round the ball to finish beyond Emi Martinez into the far bottom right corner with the help of a deflection. The sides had completely reversed in this second half and Forest were dominating. Jota Silva and Hudson-Odoi linked up well down the left before the Englishman pulled back for Anderson. He looked to find that far bottom right corner but once again the Forest faithful had to watch another chance go agonisingly just wide.

At the 65th minute mark of the game, Villa had their first real chance of the second half. Following a goal kick, Murillo and Rogers were battling in the air. Murillo was arguably fouled as the ball went over his head for Rogers to run on to. The situation was looking promising with Milenkovic the only Forest defender back and Marcus Rashford coming up too. Rogers decided to go alone sending Milenkovic the wrong way but Matz Sels got down well to save the effort. The hosts were growing back into the game, testing Sels but the Forest ‘keeper was standing firm.

The chances kept coming for Forest but how many were they going to throw away? Neco Williams was the next player to see his shot roll frustrating wide. Hudson-Odoi switched the ball to Williams on the right. He played to Gibbs-White who passed back to the full back who was making a promising run into the box, getting beyond Maatsen. Instead of pulling back into the danger area for a teammate, he went alone but couldn’t find the far bottom left corner. Villa seemed to have seen the last of the Forest chances and took control of the final minutes. In injury time, Murillo did try a wonder strike from 30 yards but his attempt could only rattle off the crossbar. The tension grew around Villa Park as they had to hold on for 4 minutes of injury time but they were the ones with last chance of the game. Villa cleared up the field, ending with Rashford one on one against Sels after getting away from Milenkovic. The ‘keeper got down to save the shot but it looked to be looping into the net. Rashford looked to tap it over the line but Sels got up quickly to tip it away.

The first half was shocking from us, conceding two disappointing goals that are very rare for us to concede this season. I thought we were going to go on to capitulate like previously we would have done but I’m very proud of our response. We had 13 attempts in the second half, but it was so frustrating to put so many chances narrowly wide, especially Neco’s. With a striker and some more luck, we probably would’ve found an equaliser. Villa was always going to be a tough place to go and we nearly managed to take something after being so down just 15 minutes in. The other teams around us didn’t win too so it’s not all bad. The change in shape might’ve thrown us but if Ola isn’t back next week at least we have Moreno available. I hope this week we are practicing shooting, and we look ahead to our fixture against Everton.

 

Aston Villa: Martinez; Maatsen, Mings, Disasi, Garcia (Konsa 46’); Tielemans, Onana (Kamara 62’); Rogers, Asensio (McGinn 73’), Malen (Ramsey 62’); Watkins (Rashford 62’)

 

Forest: Sels; Murillo, Milenkovic, Morato (Boly 75’); Williams, Anderson, Yates, Dominguez (Sosa 74’); Gibbs-White; Hudson-Odoi, Elanga (Jota Silva 46’)