Nottingham Forest reached the Europa League quarter-finals by defeating Midtjylland 2-1 after extra time and 3-0 on penalties in their round-of-16 second-leg tie. Nicolas Dominguez and Ryan Yates scored for the visitors, with Martin Erlic replying for the hosts in a 2-2 aggregate draw. The win came despite heavy rotation by manager Vitor Pereira.
Nottingham Forest progressed to face either Porto or Stuttgart in the Europa League quarter-finals after a tense penalty shoot-out win at Midtjylland's MCH Arena. The second leg ended 1-2 after extra time, levelling the aggregate at 2-2 following Midtjylland's 1-0 first-leg victory via Guesung Cho's late goal at the City Ground. Kick-off was at 17:45 GMT on Thursday, March 19, 2026. Forest made nine changes from their recent Premier League draw with Fulham, retaining only Nikola Milenkovic and Nicolas Dominguez, but injuries sidelined several including John Victor, Willy Boly, Chris Wood and Jair Cunha. Midtjylland missed Paulinho, Alamari Djabi, Ola Brynhildsen and Franculino. Forest dominated the first half, with Dilane Bakwa shooting over early, Lorenzo Lucca testing Elias Olafsson, Yates striking the bar and Dominguez's header cleared off the line by Philip Billing. Dominguez opened the scoring with a looping header, and Yates curled in a second soon after half-time. Martin Erlic halved the deficit with a half-volley from Dario Osorio's cross on 70 minutes. Substitutions including Morgan Gibbs-White, Neco Williams and Murillo injected experience, but extra time yielded no further goals after Yates' late strike was ruled offside. In the shoot-out, Forest's Gibbs-White, Ibrahim Sangare and Williams scored, while Midtjylland's Cho Gue-sung and Aral Simsir hit the woodwork and Edward Chilufya skied his effort. Goalkeeper Stefan Ortega told TNT Sports: “Everyone is happy, buzzing. Everyone is tired as well – it was a long fight today. We played so good, energy from minute one.” Vitor Pereira said: “Very happy, we proved today that we came to compete, we have good talented players. The first half was fantastic... It’s important – the energy and spirit is different when we win.” The result boosts Forest ahead of their Premier League clash at Tottenham.
