Nottingham Forest secured a Europa League quarter-final place with a penalty shootout win over Danish side Midtjylland following a dramatic last-16 tie.
2025/2026 UEFA Europa League
1-5
Penalty Shootout
Match Report
Cho Gue-Sung and Aral Simsir both struck the same post for Midtjylland in the shootout before Edward Chilufya slipped and also missed, while Morgan Gibbs-White, Ibrahim Sangare and Neco Williams all scored from the spot to send Forest through.
Vitor Pereira's side now face a quarter-final against either Stuttgart or Porto next month as they put their Premier League struggles behind them to continue their European quest.
Forest midfielder Ryan Yates arrowed a low strike from 20 yards into the corner to put his side ahead in the tie, after Nicolas Dominguez had headed the visitors in front on the night and level on aggregate before half-time.
Then Midtjylland defender Martin Erlic forced extra time by pulling one back for the hosts when he found the net from inside the area.
But Forest would not be denied and got through as they came back from a first-leg deficit.
Forest travelled to Denmark trailing to Cho's goal at the City Ground last week and started with clear intent to get back into the last-16 tie.
Pereira may have made nine changes from Sunday's goalless draw with Fulham, as he obviously has Sunday's huge match with relegation rivals Tottenham in mind, but they dominated the first half with 11 attempts to Midtjylland one on goal.
Yates hit the crossbar after a superb pass from James McAtee before former Bournemouth midfielder Philip Billing cleared off the line after the ball pinged around in the area following a corner.
Dominguez and Nicola Milenkovic were the only players to keep their place and combined for the opener on the night and the equaliser in the tie.
Dilane Bakwa put a deep cross into the area five minutes before the half-time break and Milenkovic rose to knock it back to Dominguez, who found the net as he stretched to deliver a looping header over Midtjylland goalkeeper Elias Olafsson.
Yates then fired home seven minutes after the restart to put Forest ahead in the tie but their joy was ended when Erlic struck.
It was Cho's header which was blocked by Morato with 20 minutes to go but it fell kindly to defender Erlic and he lashed it past Stefan Ortega in the Forest goal which would eventually force extra time.
Forest captain Yates thought he had won it late on in the added 30 minutes but his fine header was ruled out by the assistant referee for offside, which was confirmed by a VAR check.
Match Events
1' Match Event for Midtjylland vs Nottingham Forest
5' Match Event for Midtjylland vs Nottingham Forest
29' Match Event for Midtjylland vs Nottingham Forest
29' Match Event for Midtjylland vs Nottingham Forest
41' GOAL! Midtjylland 0-1 Nottingham Forest
51' GOAL! Midtjylland 0-2 Nottingham Forest
69' GOAL! Midtjylland 1-2 Nottingham Forest (Martin Erlić)
Line-ups
Midtjylland XI: Billing, Martin Erlić, Mads Bech Sørensen, Elías Ólafsson, Júnior Brumado, Victor Bak, Pedro Bravo, Valdemar Byskov, Darío Osorio, Ousmane Diao, Denil Castillo
Subs: Lossl, Mikael Uhre, Edward Chilufya, Aral Şimşir, Gue-sung Cho, Han-beom Lee, Adam Gabriel, Mark Ugboh, Junior Zé, Mikel Gogorza, Julius Emefile
Nottingham Forest XI: Ortega, Milenkovic, Ryan Yates, Dominguez, Lorenzo Lucca, Dan Ndoye, Dilane Bakwa, Morato, McAtee, Omari Hutchinson, Zach Abbott
Subs: Sels, Aina, Sangare, Elliot Anderson, Gibbs-White, Neco Williams, Igor Jesus, Justin Hanks, Jimmy Sinclair, Murillo, Archie Whitehall, Keehan Willows