On Thursday 1st May, Nottingham Forest hosts Brentford at the City Ground in what will be a closely-fought encounter, with the home side aiming to qualify for next season’s Champions League, while the Bees are fighting to secure an eighth-place finish.
Date: 01/05/2025
Location: City Ground
Time: 7:30pm
As previously mentioned, Forest ran out as 2-0 victors when these two sides last met back on 21st December, as goals from Ola Aina and Anthony Elanga on either side of half time gave Nuno Espírito Santo’s men all three points.
When these two sides last faced off at the City Ground on 1st October 2023, Nicolas Dominguez scored a 65th-minute equaliser after Christian Norgaard had given the Bees a 58th-minute lead.
This season has been an impressive one for Forest, as they are level on points with Chelsea in the battle for fifth-place with one game in hand on the Stamford Bridge club, meaning that they are firmly in the race for a shock Champions League qualification with just five games to go. Nuno Espírito Santo deserves a lot of plaudits, having helped them to a 17th-place finish last campaign, before significantly improving both Forest’s playing squad and results with a solid counter-attacking style.
On the other hand, Brentford are enjoying another decent season under Thomas Frank, as the Bees are 11th in the table with 46 points from 33 matches, meaning that they are just five points behind eighth-place Fulham. At present, eighth-place would earn a Premier League side UEFA Europa Conference League qualification due to UEFA’s coefficient rankings, however, if Crystal Palace win the FA Cup, they would effectively qualify for the Europa League, nulling eighth-place in the process.
