Aston Villa<\/b> welcome Nottingham Forest<\/b> to Villa Park for the UEFA Europa League semi-final second leg<\/b> on Thursday, May 7, 2026<\/b> (kick-off 21:00 CET \/ 20:00 BST \/ approx. 12:30 AM IST). Unai Emery\u2019s side trail 0-1 from the first leg and must produce a strong performance in front of their passionate home crowd to reach the final in Istanbul.<\/p>\nFirst Leg Summary:<\/h3>\n
Nottingham Forest secured a narrow 1-0<\/b> victory over Aston Villa in the semi-final first leg at the City Ground on April 30, 2026<\/b>. Chris Wood converted a second-half penalty in the 71st minute to hand the visitors a crucial lead. Despite controlling much of the possession, Villa failed to break down Forest\u2019s well-organized defense. The result puts significant pressure on the Premier League side, who now need to overturn the deficit without conceding at home.<\/p>\nWhere to Watch:<\/h3>\n
The match will be broadcast live on TNT Sports<\/b> in the UK, Paramount+<\/b> in the US, and SonyLIV<\/b> streaming platform for fans in India. Fans should check local listings for exact channel and streaming details.<\/p>\nPredicted Lineups:<\/h3>\n
Aston Villa (possible 4-2-3-1)<\/b>: Mart\u00ednez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Maatsen; Bogarde, Tielemans; McGinn, Rogers, Buend\u00eda; Watkins.<\/p>\n
Captain John McGinn is expected to return, though midfield remains stretched with Onana unavailable.<\/p>\n
Nottingham Forest (possible 4-2-3-1)<\/b>: Ortega; Abbott, Milenkovic, Morato, Williams; Hutchinson, Dom\u00ednguez; Anderson, Gibbs-White, Jesus; Wood.<\/p>\n
Morgan Gibbs-White could feature with a protective mask. Forest will look to sit deep and counter-attack.<\/p>\n
(2-2 aggregate \u2013 extra time or penalties likely). <\/b>Villa\u2019s excellent home European record makes them favorites, but Forest\u2019s discipline could force a tense decider. Villa Park is set to be rocking for a memorable night<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aston Villa welcome Nottingham Forest to Villa Park for the UEFA Europa League semi-final second leg on Thursday, May 7,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":502,"featured_media":51455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4652],"tags":[1288,2464,4057],"class_list":["post-51453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-champions-league","tag-aston-villa","tag-nottingham-forest","tag-top-stories"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51453"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51465,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51453\/revisions\/51465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}