Chelsea 1-3 Nottingham Forest
Vitor Pereira’s fantastic impact at Nottingham Forest continues, as the Reds eased to victory at Chelsea despite the Portuguese rotating his squad to balance their Europa League ambitions.
Forest will travel to Aston Villa this week with a 1-0 advantage in their semi-final secured on Thursday, putting Pereira’s side on the brink of a first European final since 1980. In managing the load for his players across their continental quest and battling to survive in the Premier League, Pereira opted to make eight changes for the trip to Stamford Bridge on Monday.
Despite shuffling his pack, Pereira watched his team breeze past their opponents in the capital. Goals from Taiwo Awoniyi and Igor Jesus (pen) had Forest 2-0 up inside 15 minutes, with the points effectively sealed when Nigerian frontman Awoniyi got his second early after the restart, rendering João Pedro’s acrobatic late strike a mere consolation for the hosts.
The win means Forest are now six points clear of the drop zone with three matches remaining, allowing focus to shift to Thursday’s return leg at Villa Park, which many expect to be a closely contested affair. Villa fared poorly upon their return to domestic matters this weekend, suffering a 2-1 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
“I’m very happy for our players, they’re a special group as I’ve said before,” Pereira declared after the match. “They’re ambitious, united and resilient, and they have fire.
“With our supporters today, we came here and managed to get another three points, but it’s important that we keep working until the end of the season and keep our future in our own hands.
“We don’t want to look at the results of the other teams but focus on our own and on our spirit.
“I didn’t have any doubts. I changed the players, but it didn’t change the spirit. These are the same players that played against FC Porto away.
“We deserved it, the supporters deserved it and the club deserved it.”
Pereira was appointed with Forest hovering above the drop zone with a three-point cushion in 17th spot in February. With that gap now increased to six points despite navigating a European campaign which has seen them past Fenerbahce, Midtjylland and FC Porto before the 1-0 win over Villa, Pereira is being applauded for another positive impact.
The 57-year-old former Porto boss made an even more striking impact at Wolverhampton Wanderers last term, taking over with the team five points adrift from safety and ending the season 17 points clear of the bottom three.
Unsurprisingly, Pereira is establishing himself as one of the league’s most respected operators. As a manager with trophies won in three different countries already, the prospect of guiding Forest to European glory only offers further opportunity to build on his reputation.
