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Penalty gives Forest edge over Villa in Europa League
The Independent
|May 01, 2026
Nottingham Forest 1 Wood (71 pen) Aston Villa 0
Nottingham Forest edged Aston Villa in a closely fought first leg of their Europa League semifinal and will take a one-goal lead to Villa Park next week.
A tense but goalless first half was dominated by fine goalkeeping performances, with Emi Martinez making a superb double save from Igor Jesus from right on the goalline.
And neither side looked likely to score in the second - until Lucas Digne was penalised for handball as he flung an arm up when duelling with Omari Hutchinson at the byline.
The Forest player did well to hook a cross that looked destined to go out back into the box, knocking it off Digne’s arm in the process, and after a lengthy VAR check Forest were awarded the penalty.
Chris Wood smashed a sublime spot-kick into the top corner and although Forest pressed for another, and Villa spurned chances of their own, Vitor Pereira’s men came out on top with a 1-0 victory at a bouncing City Ground.
This story is from the May 01, 2026 edition of The Independent.
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