Key events
This is the Europa League after the 5.45pms and before the 8pms. Nottingham Forest in the top-eight places for now, Rangers as good as out.
The early full-times
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Dinamo Zagreb 1-3 Real Betis
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Ferencváros 2-1 Rangers
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Ludogorets 3-3 PAOK
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Midtjylland 1-0 Genk
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Nice 0-1 Sporting Braga
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Sturm Graz 0-1 Red Star Belgrade
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Stuttgart 4-1 Maccabi Tel Aviv
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Utrecht 1-2 Nottingham Forest
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Young Boys 1-0 Lille
FULL TIME: Ferencváros 2-1 Rangers
Findlay Curtis has one final effort tipped around the post, and that’s it. Robbie Keane’s side, who wear green and white hoops, have done a number on Rangers. Danny Röhl’s team are as good as out of this year’s Europa League.
FULL TIME: Utrecht 1-2 Nottingham Forest
A huge win for Sean Dyche’s side. Forest’s first away win in Europe for 30 years, since a 1-0 win at Auxerre in the 1995-96 Uefa Cup, Steve Stone the hero that day. Their dreams of a top-eight finish are still alive!
Ferencváros 2-1 Rangers. Findlay Curtis sends another fine cross in from the left. Dujon Sterling extends a leg to meet, six yards out, but slices over the bar. Curtis holds his head in his hands and screams: “Come on, man!” Pure frustration.
Utrecht 1-2 Nottingham Forest. Callum Hudson-Odoi nearly wraps things up by steering a drive towards the bottom right from 25 yards. Vasilis Barkas saves spectacularly.
GOAL! Utrecht 1-2 Nottingham Forest (Igor Jesus 88)
Morgan Gibbs-White wedges a ball down the inside-left channel. Callum Hudson-Odoi cut-chips it back for Dan Ndoye, whose header is parried. But the ball drops to Igor Jesus, on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. He slots, having been on the pitch for a grand total of 88 seconds!
Ferencváros 2-1 Rangers. Rangers haven’t achieved much in their search for an equaliser. But now they launch a rare attack, Findlay Curtis making good down the left and crossing long for Dujon Sterling, who heads powerfully over the bar from six yards. It’s not much, but it’s something, with time running out for Rangers, who will be as good as out if they don’t scrape a point.
Stuttgart 3-1 Maccabi Tel Aviv. Some bonus content here. No need to thank us! And there really is no need to thank us, because it comes courtesy of our old MBM and Clockwatch pal Kári Tulinius. “Stuttgart looked like they were heading to the most comfortable of home wins when they went 3-0 up after yet another defensive rick by Maccabi, when the normally reliable Alexander Nübel tried to save Roy Revivo’s shot with a hand so weak it seemed like it was made out of cottage cheese. The comedy defending moment still goes to the visitors, though, who let in an opener after a covering defender simply fell on his behind while tracking a high ball, giving Lorenz Assignon all the time in the world to measure the aim on his volley.”
GOAL! Ferencváros 2-1 Rangers (Varga 72)
Callum O’Dowda swings a ball in from the left wing. Barnabás Varga heads into the top-right corner from close range. He couldn’t miss, partly because the nearest defender, Emmanuel Fernandez, was the wrong side of the striker, facing upfield, then span around in confusion, making no challenge whatsoever. Comically poor defending.
GOAL! Utrecht 1-1 Nottingham Forest (van der Hoorn 73)
A free kick swung in long from the right. Mike van der Hoorn stoops at the far post to guide a header home from close range. Dan Ndoye was in the area but powerless to do anything.
Celtic v Roma. Wilfried Nancy’s first match as Celtic boss ended in a 2-1 home defeat to Hearts. Nevertheless, he’s named the same starting XI tonight, fielding a back three of Kieran Tierney, Liam Scales and Auston Trusty. Republic of Ireland striker Evan Ferguson starts for Roma.
Basel v Aston Villa. Villa make several changes after the 2-1 win over Arsenal. Emi Buendía is rewarded for his late winner with a starting spot, while Jadon Sancho gets a runout. Marco Bizot starts in goal in place of Emi Martinez. Xherdan Shaqiri, once of Liverpool and Stoke City, captains Basel.
Utrecht 0-1 Nottingham Forest. Arnaud Kalimuendo is this close to his second goal, but can’t bundle home a corner whipped long from the left to the far post. Forest are on top and looking pretty comfortable.
The big 8pm team news
Basel: Hitz, Tsunemoto, Adjetey, Daniliuc, Schmid, Metinho, Leroy, Bacanin, Traore, Shaqiri, Otele.
Subs: Salvi, Pfeiffer, Vouilloz, Koindredi, Broschinski, Soticek, Salah, Ajeti, Barisic, Ruegg, Cisse, Ze.
Aston Villa: Bizot, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Digne, Bogarde, Onana, Guessand, Buendia, Sancho, Malen.
Subs: Wright, Oakley, McGinn, Tielemans, Watkins, Garcia, Maatsen, Rogers, Kamara, Hemmings.
Celtic: Schmeichel, Trusty, Scales, Tierney, Yang, McGregor, Engels, Tounekti, Nygren, Maeda, Hatate.
Subs: Sinisalo, Doohan, Balikwisha, McCowan, Iheanacho, Kenny, Bernardo, Murray, Donovan, Ralston.
Roma: Svilar, Mancini, N’Dicka, Hermoso, Celik, Soule, El Aynaoui, Rensch, Pisilli, El Shaarawy, Ferguson.
Subs: De Marzi, Gollini, Angelino, Cristante, Pellegrini, Tsimikas, Kone, Dybala, Ziolkowski, Bailey, Franca, Ghilardi.
GOAL! Utrecht 0-1 Nottingham Forest (Kalimuendo 52)
Arnaud Kalimuendo breaks the deadlock in the Netherlands. He absolutely barges his way down the inside-left channel, through rather than past two challenges, and slots across the keeper Vasilis Barkas and into the bottom right. An old-fashioned striker’s goal.
… the half-time scores are:
Rangers had been leading thanks to an acrobatic Bojan Miovski bicycle kick, but Bence Ötvös equalised at the very end of five additional minutes. File under: Could Be Worse.
Preamble
There are a couple of big games in the Europa League tonight.
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Basel v Aston Villa
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Celtic v Roma
See? Also in the Conference League Shelbourne welcome Crystal Palace while Aberdeen host Strasbourg, so we’ll keep an eye out for those too. All of those games kick off at 8pm GMT. But what of the ones that started at 5.45pm, such as Ferencvaros v Rangers and Utrecht v Nottingham Forest, you ask? Well …
