Midtjylland v Nottingham Forest: Europa League last 16, second leg – live

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Question: what is the exact thing the Premier League – and wider world of football – does not need?

Answer: this.

Thinking back to when my own team were good, I quite liked it when they went behind or if teams came back, because those games were much more of a buzz than the litany of comfortable wins.

In the studio, Peter Crouch is unchuffed with Forest’s line-up saying as a player, you want to play in all the big games, whereas Reid is more understanding. So, tangentially, a question: as a player, is a relegation struggle more enjoyable than mid-table mediocrity because at least there’s some excitement about it?

Midtjylland make two changes to the side which played last week: in come Andreasen and Osorio, with Mbabu dropping out completely and Simsir on the bench.

Andy Reid is a pretty good pundit, but his taste in what I believe are called overshirts leaves something to be desired.

Photograph: TNT

I can’t help but note that McAtee and Lucca were both hooked at half-time when Fenerbahce visited Nottingham; both start tonight. I guess it’s possible Forest use the first half to stay in the game, then send on their better players to try and steal a result, but given they went close to full-strength in the home leg, it feels like the 1-0 defeat has persuaded them to abandon their hopes of winning this competition.

So, Mats Sels, Ola Aina, Neco Williams, Murillo, Morgan Gibbs-White, Elliot Anderson, and Igor Jesus are all left on the bench with Spurs on Sunday in mind; Stefan Ortega, Morato, Dan Ndoye, Lorenzo Lucca, Omari Hutchinson, Ryan Yates, James McAtee, Dilane Bakwa and Zach Abbott come into the XI. I don’t know, do we not think progress and a good performance would help them at the weekend? Pah, etc.

Er, it appears Vitor Pereira, Evengelos Marinakis or both disagree with me: they want Forest to stay up for the potential glory of a finish between eighth and 17th next season, much, much more than they want the unfathomable joy of bringing a European trophy back to the City Ground. Whatever turns you on, lads.

Teams!

Midtjylland (3-4-1-2): Olafsson; Bech, Erlic, Diao; Jensen, Billing, Bravo, Castillo; Bak, Byskov, Castillo; Andreasen; Osorio, Brumado. Subs: Lossl, Ugboh, Lee, Gabriel, Ze, Cho, Gogorza, Chilufya, Uhre, Emefile, Simsir.

Nottingham Forest (4-4-1-1): Ortega; Dominguez, Abbott, Milenkovic, Morato; Ndoye, Yates, McAtee, Bakwa; Hutchinson, Lucca. Subs: Sels, Willows, Williams, Murillo, Sangare, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Igor Jesus, Aina, Whitehall, Sinclair, Hanks.

Referee: Felix Zwayer (Germany)

Preamble

Fourth-bottom of the Premier League and clear of the relegation zone on goal difference only, with a Sunday match against the side a point and a place ahead to come; a midweek schlep to Denmark is surely the last thing Nottingham Forest need.

Yeah, [redacted] that. A midweek schlep to Denmark is exactly what Nottingham Forest need, a chance for the players to make themselves immortal and for younger fans raised on tales of triumphs past to enjoy an eternal moment that is truly theirs. In simple terms, one Europa League is worth a million relegations.

And make no mistake, Forest are capable of lifting this trophy, despite the deficit they must retrieve this evening. Though they find goals difficult to come by, they are solid at the back and superb in midfield, which makes them a nasty proposition in any cup competition and, in Midtjylland, they face opponents who are competent but not devastating, their one-goal advantage not close to definitive. Or, put another way, for the Forest players and fans, this is the opportunity of a lifetime.

Kick-off: 6.45pm local, 5.45pm GMT

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