Nottingham Forest v Malmö, Rangers vs Braga, and Additional – Europa League Coverage
Match Coverage
Important Updates
- Full-time: Young Boys 1-2 Aston Villa
- Goal scored!: Joël Monteiro scores for Young Boys at 90+1
- Game over: Celtic 3-1 Feyenoord
- Lineups announced: Forest and Malmö lineups
- Starting players: Rangers and Braga lineups
- Opening notes
Latest Standings
These early results strongly influence the competition standings. Celtic have moved up to 17th position and returned to the safety of qualification spots.
| Position | Side | Matches | Difference | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Midtjylland | 5 | 7 | 12 |
| 2 | Aston Villa | 5 | 5 | 12 |
| 3 | Freiburg | 5 | 5 | 11 |
| 4 | Ferencvaros | 5 | 4 | 11 |
| 5 | FC Porto | 5 | 3 | 10 |
| 17 | Celtic | 5 | -1 | 7 |
| 25 | Nottm Forest | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 35 | Rangers | 4 | -7 | 0 |
| 33 | Malmo FF | 4 | -5 | 1 |
Full-time: Aston Villa 2-1 Young Boys
Villa managed to hold on for the victory and went equal on points with table-toppers Midtjylland at the peak of the competition table. The Birmingham club had difficulty of that during the closing minutes.
Late Goal: Monteiro Scores
Young Boys gave themselves a hope through Monteiro but were left with four more minutes to get the tying goal!
Celtic Secure Victory
A famous and valuable win for the Glasgow side. Although they went 1-0 down, Celtic responded strongly with goals from the Korean forward, Hatate and Nygren.
Match Updates
Aston Villa, concurrently, held onto a 2-0 lead over Young Boys with around five minutes left at the stadium.
The Dutch forward's brace there caused dramatic events in the opposition stands, with Swiss fans confronting police. Punches were thrown and objects thrown at both the police and toward the field, with the player being struck in the head by a throwable object.
Starting XI Revealed
Forest: Victor, The defender, Milenkovic, The defender, The full-back, Yates, Sangare, Dominguez, McAtee, Hudson-Odoi, The striker.
Malmö: Ellborg, The defender, The center-back, Duric, Rosler, The midfielder, Johnsen, Skogmar, The attacker, Gudjohnsen, Busanello.
Match official: Osmers (Germany)
Team News: Rangers v Braga
The Glasgow side: The goalkeeper, The defender, Fernandez, The defender, Aarons, Barron, Diomande, Raskin, Gassama, The forward, The striker.
Braga: Hornicek, The defender, Lagerbielke, Niakate, Arrey-Mbi, The midfielder, The experienced midfielder, The midfielder, The attacker, The forward, Ricardo Horta.
Referee: Allard Lindhout (from Netherlands)
Preamble
The European clash and memories of 1979. The both teams have a special connection, also competing in Forest's most recent continental tour in the mid-90s European competition, but it is the European Cup final 46 years ago that links these clubs, with the groundbreaking transfer Francis heading the only goal of a pretty miserable final to claim legendary status for the the English club.
"Forest's famous bosses, unassuming and low-key amid all the excitement and joy, stood for a moment on a bench calmly observing the revelry," wrote the match reporter. Their achievement was an extraordinary accomplishment that it is unlikely to be replicated – from the lower league to European stage in a short period."
It's also interesting to reflect upon Malmö, who became the pioneering and only Scandinavian side to advance to the ultimate game under manager Houghton.
Tonight's game is a very different to that peak, closer perhaps to the earlier European encounter between Forest and Malmö in 1995-96. Forest are riding high after beating Liverpool 3-0 at the famous ground on Saturday, while Malmö haven't played officially since last month following the completion of Allsvenskan. The general expectation is on the home team tonight.
Additional games on offer in this match tracking. Rangers have already been beaten by a European rival this season. Rangers are last place of the league rankings at the half-way stage of the league phase with no points whatsoever. They desperately need a victory if they are to have any chance of achieving a late surge for a qualification place.
Coverage will persist with all the evening matches and provide the most recent results from the concluded fixtures, including the Birmingham match and Feyenoord v Celtic.
