{"id":373443,"date":"2026-04-10T20:07:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/373443\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T20:07:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:07:26","slug":"chris-wood-recovery-boosts-nottingham-forest-for-pereiras-return-to-porto-nottingham-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/373443\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Wood recovery boosts Nottingham Forest for Pereira\u2019s return to Porto | Nottingham Forest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobody has scored more goals in the Europa League this season than Igor Jesus and yet the overwhelming source of interest surrounding Nottingham Forest<\/a> on arrival in northern Portugal on Wednesday was another striker. Only Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak outscored Chris Wood in the Premier League last season and the New Zealand frontman has been slowly building fitness and working towards a long-awaited first-team return.<\/p>\n

All eyes were on Wood at last weekend\u2019s interactive open-training session, staged at the City Ground. He has been ticking off different targets since knee surgery in December and at the end of last month the 34-year-old made a welcome goalscoring comeback 11 minutes into his return to action for Forest under-21s against Newcastle, in modest surroundings at Loughborough University\u2019s stadium in front of a crowd totalling a couple of hundred: students, Forest fans, a few from the north-east.<\/p>\n

It had been 215 days since he scored twice on the opening day of the season in victory against Brentford<\/a>. That was when Nuno Esp\u00edrito Santo was still in charge and remarkably eight months on he is still the last Forest striker to score a league goal at home.<\/p>\n

Wood\u2019s last goal was a stoppage-time penalty in a miserable home defeat by Midtjylland, after which Ange Postecoglou was the subject of a backlash<\/a> from angry supporters. His last game was October\u2019s 3-0 defeat by Chelsea<\/a>, after which Postecoglou was sacked within minutes of the full-time whistle. Now Wood could return at the Est\u00e1dio do Drag\u00e3o in Thursday\u2019s quarter-final first leg in Porto, with Forest\u2019s fourth manager of the season, V\u00edtor Pereira, confirming the striker may feature.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is available and I hope that he can help us in the games we need to face,\u201d said Pereira, who returns to face Porto<\/a> for the first time since winning successive titles as head coach in 2012 and 2013, after working as an assistant to Andr\u00e9 Villas-Boas, now the club\u2019s president. \u201cI spent a lot of years in the club. We will see a fantastic atmosphere, for sure, and we\u2019ll be in red. I think it\u2019s the first time I will be red in this stadium \u2013 they are blue. It will be a big challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pereira has maintained he does not want to push Wood too soon but his potential return would represent an invaluable boost. Last season, his most prolific, Wood scored more than a third of Forest\u2019s 58 goals and since signing in January 2023 their win percentage with him in the team is 37%. It drops to 25% without him. Even his return to training was significant for teammates.<\/p>\n

Chris Wood\u2019s most recent goal for Nottingham Forest came from the penalty spot against Midtjylland in October \u2013 when Ange Postecoglou was their manager. Photograph: David Klein\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The mood has also been lifted by Forest\u2019s performance in their 3-0 victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before the international break, in which Igor Jesus was excellent in both boxes, opening the scoring with a fine header. The Brazil striker has scored 13 goals this season, seven of those coming in the Europa League<\/a>, three in the domestic cup competitions and three in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

For Wood, who has missed Forest\u2019s past 34 matches, the ultimate target is the World Cup this summer but for now he can have a major say in salvaging a draining season. As Ryan Yates stressed after progressing in Denmark in the previous round, there is still a belief Forest can end the campaign on a high. They are four Europa League matches from securing a place in May\u2019s final.<\/p>\n

The break has allowed some players to reset, even amid international duties. For example, Elliot Anderson enjoyed a breather in Marbella before reporting for England duty. \u201cThe break is a reality, we can\u2019t escape it,\u201d Pereira said. \u201cAfter the victory [against Spurs], we probably wanted a match straight away to take advantage of the good momentum but some went to play for their national teams. I have to take advantage of these days to try to prepare all players for both competitions, to play Europa League and three days later face Aston Villa [on Sunday]. It\u2019s up to me to find a balance between the competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quick GuideBraga pay the penaltyShow<\/p>\n

Cucho Hern\u00e1ndez converted a penalty for Real Betis to salvage a 1-1 draw with Braga in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez beat Lukas Hornicek from the spot in the 61st minute after the goalkeeper had saved the Colombia striker’s header in the first half.<\/p>\n

Florian Grillitsch had put the hosts in front early on with a backheel from a corner kick in his 98th game for Braga in Europe’s second-tier competition, a Uefa record.<\/p>\n

The other three quarter-final first legs will be played on Thursday: Aston Villa at Bologna; Nottingham Forest at Porto; and Freiburg host Celta Vigo.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

For Forest, excitement at Wood being in the travelling party is mixed with caution. Pereira also recognises the difficulty of the game; Porto have lost just four matches this season and only once at home, to Vit\u00f3ria in the Portuguese Cup in December. \u201cWe cannot expect [Wood to play] 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 90 minutes; we need to manage him in the proper way,\u201d Pereira said. \u201cHe is an experienced player, he can manage himself, his body. It is important for us to communicate with him, with the medical department, to manage his fitness. For us, he is very important \u2013 it\u2019s like we\u2019ve signed a new player.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nobody has scored more goals in the Europa League this season than Igor Jesus and yet the overwhelming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-373443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}