Nottingham Forest 1-0 Aston Villa: Wood penalty secures Europa League semi-final advantage

Chris Wood’s penalty made it advantage Nottingham Forest in their Europa League semi-final with Premier League rivals Aston Villa, as they won the first leg 1-0 at the City Ground.

There was nothing to split two former European Cup winners separated by a mere 49 miles, until Lucas Digne was penalised for handball and Wood converted the resulting spot-kick in the 71st minute.

Unai Emery’s side now have it all to do in the return leg at Villa Park next Thursday, while Forest are halfway to their first continental final since winning the 1980 European Cup.

After Youri Tielemans’ early sighter was pushed wide by Stefan Ortega, there was a nervy moment for Forest full-back Ola Aina, whose attempt to cushion the ball back to his goalkeeper almost allowed Emiliano Buendia in.

Ortega made a more impressive save to keep out Morgan Rogers’ left-footed curler, but the best stop of the half came from Emiliano Martinez at the other end.

The Argentina international reacted brilliantly to Igor Jesus’ side-footed attempt, redirecting his dive to make the block while also preventing the ball from squirming beneath him.

Another Ortega save thwarted Ollie Watkins early in the second half, but Forest, having earlier had a VAR scare when Elliot Anderson’s lunge on Watkins was briefly checked for a red card, saw another intervention go in their favour.

It was initially ruled that Omari Hutchinson had failed to keep the ball in play when hooking it against Digne’s outstretched arm, but after referee Joao Pinheiro was sent to the pitch-side monitor, the penalty was awarded, and Wood rifled it into the top-left corner.

Vitor Pereira’s side defended resolutely from then on, with Villa’s only real chance to take a draw back to Birmingham being squandered by Tielemans, who fired high over the crossbar after taking in Rogers’ pass.

Taking a lead to Villa Park. pic.twitter.com/bheT1hGYkz

— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 30, 2026

Data Debrief: Forest on the spot again

This is the first European semi-final between two English teams since the 2008-09 Champions League, when a Manchester United team boasting the attacking talents of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez beat Arsenal 4-1 on aggregate.

And it is advantage Forest at the halfway point, after they extended their unbeaten streak in home games against Villa to five matches (W3 D2, all other games in the Premier League).

Forest’s penalty was their seventh in the Europa League this season (excluding shoot-outs), which is already the most for any team in a single edition since the 2009-10 rebrand.

And Wood held his nerve in the moment that mattered, and following last week’s 5-0 rout of Sunderland, he has scored in back-to-back games for Forest in all competitions for the first time since January 2025 (versus Liverpool and Southampton).

Pereira’s team ended the match with more expected goals (1.46 xG to 0.77), but they will know the job is not yet complete, as Emery has progressed from each of his last five Europa League semi-final ties (three with Sevilla, one with Arsenal, one with Villarreal).