Forest and Villa renew rivalries at the City Ground in the Europa League's first all-Midlands tie
Nottingham Forest meet Aston Villa at the City Ground on Thursday night for the first leg of a Europa League semi-final that does not lack for context. The two Midlands sides are 80km apart, have never met in European football before, and arrive at this stage of the competition with very different stories behind them.
Vitor Pereira's Forest, the season's fourth head coach in charge, are the storyline of the spring. They put five past Sunderland away from home at the weekend, the first top-flight side to score four times in a first half on the road since Tottenham did it at Southampton in December 2024, and a result that pulled them eight points clear of the relegation zone. The unbeaten run is now eight games, and the City Ground will be packed and loud for a European semi-final that did not look remotely on the cards back in January.
Villa arrive on a 7-1 aggregate
Aston Villa come in off a Premier League dent. They lost 1-0 at Fulham last Saturday, Ryan Sessegnon scoring just before half-time, a result that has them stuck fourth in the table. Their European form is the opposite. Unai Emery's side won 3-1 in Bologna and 4-0 at Villa Park in the quarter-finals, finishing 7-1 on aggregate, and Emery's record in this competition speaks for itself: a Sevilla manager who turned the Europa League into his calling card before he ever got to the West Midlands.
Villa will be without Boubacar Kamara and Alysson, and Ross Barkley is not in the registered Europa League squad, but otherwise Emery has options. Forest are the more depleted of the two: Callum Hudson-Odoi, Murillo, John Victor, Nicolo Savona and Willy Boly are all unavailable.
All-English in everything but the trophy
This is the first all-English semi-final in a major European competition since Arsenal met Manchester United in the 2009 Champions League semi-finals. The Europa League itself has produced two all-English finals in recent years, Tottenham over Manchester United in 2025 and Chelsea over Arsenal in 2019. Whoever survives this tie will be in line for a third Europa final in seven seasons, and the first all-Midlands European final at any level. The second leg is at Villa Park on Thursday May 7. Tonight, the City Ground does not feel like a 50-50 game so much as a Forest team rising into one.
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