Nottingham Forest secured a crucial 2-1 victory over Utrecht in the Europa League, enhancing their chances for automatic qualification. Igor Jesus scored late, ensuring the win. The match began with Forest on the front
foot, as Callum Hudson-Odoi tested Vasilios Barkas twice within the first seven minutes. Oleksandr Zinchenko missed a close-range opportunity soon after.
Morato had an attempt cleared off the line, while Douglas Luiz's shot was parried away. The momentum shifted towards Utrecht when John Victor made a crucial save against Miguel Rodriguez. Despite this, Forest remained resilient and came out strong in the second half.
Arnaud Kalimuendo broke the deadlock seven minutes after halftime with a low drive into the bottom-right corner. He nearly doubled the lead but hit the side netting. However, Mike van der Hoorn equalised for Utrecht in the 73rd minute with a header from Souffian El Karouani's free-kick.
As the match seemed destined for a draw, Dan Ndoye's header was only partially saved by Barkas. Igor Jesus capitalised on this by sliding the ball through Barkas' legs just two minutes after coming on, propelling Forest to eighth place in the standings.
A LATE WIN IN UTRECHT! pic.twitter.com/j8CSDpXGa3 Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) December 11, 2025
Breaking Patterns
Before this game, all of Forest's goals under Sean Dyche were from set-pieces, and they hadn't conceded any such goals. Both streaks ended on Thursday, yet Forest felt justified in their win due to their pressure throughout. They registered 19 attempts worth 1.56 expected goals (xG), compared to Utrecht's 0.75 xG from 10 shots.
Kalimuendo became notable as he is now the first Forest player since Peter Davenport in November 1983 to score in consecutive major European matches for the club.
