{"id":388538,"date":"2026-04-12T17:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T17:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/388538\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T17:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T17:11:12","slug":"nottm-forest-1-1-aston-villa-apr-12-2026-game-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/388538\/","title":{"rendered":"Nottm Forest 1-1 Aston Villa (Apr 12, 2026) Game Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nottingham Forest<\/a> earned a vital point in their quest for Premier League<\/a> safety after a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa<\/a> at the City Ground.<\/p>\n

Neco Williams’ goal seven minutes before the break cancelled out Murillo’s earlier own goal to make it four games unbeaten for Vitor Pereira’s side.<\/p>\n

With Tottenham losing at Sunderland<\/a>, the draw means they are three points clear of the drop zone with six games to go.<\/p>\n

Villa, who strengthened their Champions League qualification hopes, will rue a string of missed chances, with Morgan Rogers<\/a> and Ollie Watkins<\/a> both going close.<\/p>\n

But both sides will respect the point after midweek away trips in the Europa League and this match could serve as a dress rehearsal for a two-legged semifinal in a few weeks.<\/p>\n

\"\"Neco Williams scored to draw Nottingham Forest level against Aston Villa.<\/p>\n

Photo by Carl Recine\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Villa’s preparations were hit by goalkeeper Emiliano Mart\u00ednez<\/a> pulling out of the match after the warm-up — the third time that has happened this season.<\/p>\n

Marco Bizot<\/a> came in and was busy in the first 20 minutes, turning Williams’ shot around a post and then fending off an over-hit cross from the same player.<\/p>\n

Forest had started well but found themselves behind in the 23rd minute.<\/p>\n

Villa had been pedestrian in attack but found some verve as Rogers was played in down the left and his low cross hit the unfortunate Murillo<\/a> and bobbled into the net.<\/p>\n

That gave Villa some control and they were almost 2-0 up in the 35th minute as John McGinn<\/a> fed Rogers, but his shot hit the crossbar and went over.<\/p>\n

Three minutes later Forest were level.<\/p>\n

A well-worked move saw Ola Aina’s cross find Callum Hudson-Odoi<\/a>, who teed up Williams to thrash home a low 20-yard drive that beat Bizot at the near post.<\/p>\n

Forest had the ascendancy after the break as Igor Jesus<\/a> headed Hudson-Odoi’s cross over and then drilled a 20-yard effort high and wide.<\/p>\n

They kept knocking on the door and Bizot was forced into a big save when he managed to get a leg to Morgan Gibbs-White’s effort, which took a big deflection off Matty Cash<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the game then swung in Villa’s direction and they should have been back in front.<\/p>\n

First, McGinn was denied by a super save from Matz Sels<\/a>, who got a hand to a shot destined for the bottom corner.<\/p>\n

Then, Rogers wanted the ground to swallow him up after an embarrassing miss from six yards, dreadfully skying his eight-yard effort high into the stands after Selz could only parry Ross Barkley’s shot.<\/p>\n

Forest had more pressure, but it was Villa who continued to ask the real questions and Watkins was a whisker away from restoring the lead in the 78th minute as he fizzed a first-time effort from Emiliano Buendia’s pass just over.<\/p>\n

Villa probed for a winner as Selz was forced into saves from Ian Maatsen<\/a> and Cash but it ended in a draw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nottingham Forest earned a vital point in their quest for Premier League safety after a 1-1 draw with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-388538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}