Yates inspires Forest to revive Euro memories

“Champions of Europe, you'll never sing that,” came the chant as Nottingham Forest supporters, not for the first time, enjoyed getting one over on Malmö.

- Ben Fisher

A lot has happened since Trevor Francis's stooping header to clinch the European Cup in Munich in 1979 but Forest still cherish those days. A lot has also changed in the five weeks since Sean Dyche took the reins, and a comfortable win thanks to goals by Arnaud Kalimuendo, Ryan Yates and Nikola Milenkovic enhanced their hope of qualifying for the Europa League knockout phase.

For Forest, this victory - against a Malmö side that had not played for almost three weeks after finishing sixth in their domestic league - represented a third straight win in all competitions and further built on the momentum gained from last weekend’s success at Liverpool.

This was an occasion dripping in nostalgia, a third competitive meeting between the teams since the European Cup final 46 years ago. Forest leaned into the history, too. They made a fuss of the heroes of 1979, giving them and their Malmö counterparts the red-carpet treatment, with 13 members of the Swedish club’s squad also in attendance. Forest gave Frank Clark, Colin Barrett and co a rousing reception on the pitch 15 minutes before kickoff and there was a typically superb tifo in the Trent End to boot.