{"id":270953,"date":"2026-01-29T23:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/270953\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T23:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:46:07","slug":"nottingham-forest-power-into-playoffs-after-igor-jesus-double-fells-ferencvaros-europa-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/270953\/","title":{"rendered":"Nottingham Forest power into playoffs after Igor Jesus double fells Ferencvaros | Europa League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presumably, come Friday lunchtime, Evangelos Marinakis will have more than one eye on events at the House of European Football, Uefa\u2019s headquarters in Nyon.<\/p>\n

Not only will Olympiakos discover their Champions League playoff opponents but Nottingham Forest<\/a> will learn whether they will face Fenerbahce or Panathinaikos, his Greek team\u2019s arch rivals, in the Europa League playoffs. Marinakis, the Forest owner, would be public enemy No 1 if Sean Dyche\u2019s side end up across town in Athens.<\/p>\n

Forest cruised into the playoff round with a one-sided victory against the Hungarian champions Ferencvaros<\/a>, Igor Jesus maintaining his impressive goalscoring form to cap a fine few days for Dyche. James McAtee, one of those afforded a chance to impress, completed the scoring from the penalty spot to condemn Robbie Keane\u2019s team to a 4-0 defeat.<\/p>\n

The last time Forest won three successive home games in a European competition, in 1979, it culminated in them lifting their first European Cup under Brian Clough. While there is a long way to go this time, these are the kind of nights that foster hope of at least reaching the showpiece in Istanbul in May.<\/p>\n

A week is a long time in this game. Seven days after being booed off by the majority of the Forest supporters who travelled to Braga<\/a>, they blew away Ferencvaros, ending the Hungarian side\u2019s unbeaten record in this competition and also their hopes of a top-eight berth.<\/p>\n

The galling thing for Forest is had they claimed victory in northern Portugal then owing to their margin of victory here and results elsewhere, Dyche\u2019s side would have automatically advanced to the round of 16 themselves. Then again, that way supporters would not have another European adventure to tick off next month, Friday\u2019s draw in Switzerland determining their opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to play at a level that shows our intention in the Europa League<\/a>, one that hopefully gets you excited about the next round, too,\u201d was Dyche\u2019s mission statement in his programme notes and half an hour after kick-off, those words felt akin to something of a premonition.<\/p>\n

Forest could feasibly have led by three or four goals but had to make do with a two-goal advantage at the interval, with the homegrown captain, Ryan Yates, one of five changes from Sunday\u2019s victory<\/a> at Brentford, influential in both.<\/p>\n

James McAtee slots home Nottingham Forest\u2019s fourth goal from the penalty spot. Photograph: Tim Keeton\/EPA<\/p>\n

It was Yates\u2019s first-time cross that the Ferencvaros defender Bence Otvos put past his own goalkeeper and four minutes later Yates seized on a heavy touch by winger Cadu and Igor Jesus moseyed forward unchallenged. The Brazil striker ran at the visiting captain, Ibrahim Ciss\u00e9, who inadvertently diverted the Forest forward\u2019s shot into the far corner via the faintest of deflections.<\/p>\n

Forest added a third soon after Nicol\u00e1s Dom\u00ednguez\u2019s header struck the base of a post. Ibrahim Sangar\u00e9 flipped a pass over the top of the visitors\u2019 back line and Ferencvaros allowed it to bounce on the edge of their 18-yard box. Igor Jesus was alert and, after pouncing on the loose ball, he dispatched a first-time effort into the corner.<\/p>\n

Ferencvaros offered only glimpses of quality, Bamidele Yusuf\u2019s bullet header against the bar a case in point but that did not stop Dyche introducing Morgan Gibbs-White, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ola Aina midway through the second half. Gibbs-White, who saw his penalty saved in Braga, allowed McAtee to seal the win from 12 yards and keep the confidence flowing. \u201cWe think we can go all the way,\u201d Yates said.<\/p>\n

This was hardly a showing to enhance Keane\u2019s CV but, as he pointed out afterwards, there was always going to be a gulf between the teams. \u201cThe difference is \u00a3650m-worth of players on the field,\u201d Keane said. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed but, overall, I think we\u2019re realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former Republic of Ireland striker, who went on trial at Forest as a teenager, has established a fine reputation coaching overseas, at Maccabi Tel Aviv, where he won the domestic double, and more recently in Budapest. Keane\u2019s assistant, Stephen Glass, played with Dyche at Watford, while their analyst, Phil Hudson, spent 11 years on the staff at Middlesbrough.<\/p>\n

If it feels like it could be a case of fate on Friday, the same goes for Keane, who could be reunited with Celtic and Martin O\u2019Neill in the playoff round; Keane played on loan at Celtic in 2010 and under O\u2019Neill for Ireland. Ferencvaros, second best here from the moment Kristoffer Zachariassen\u2019s sixth-minute header cannoned off the inside of a post, will face either Celtic or Ludogorets in the next round.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it is written in the stars, myself against Martin,\u201d Keane said. \u201cHe has given a lot of energy to the club and the players since coming back. It was a club that was very, very down. Regardless of who we play, it will be two tough games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presumably, come Friday lunchtime, Evangelos Marinakis will have more than one eye on events at the House of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-270953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}