Nottingham Forest‘s run in the UEFA Europa League has come to an end after they suffered a 0-4 loss to Aston Villa at Villa Park this evening, Soccernet.ng reports.
Super Eagles defender Ola Aina played 75 minutes at the City Ground in the first leg, as Forest secured a 1-0 win over Unai Emery's side, courtesy of a penalty kick goal from Chris Wood.
Aina picked up a knock and couldn't recover on time, missing the second leg. The Reds also suffered a bigger tragedy in mid-week after one of the team leaders, Morgan Gibbs-White, suffered a deep cut on the face, requiring multiple stitches.
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How Aston Villa defeated Nottingham Forest
Unai Emery's men got into the thick of things immediately, wasting very little time in imposing themselves on the game. The captivating part was the midfield combination of Victor Lindelof and Youri Tielemans, snuffing out every threat Forest attempted.
After Stefan Ortega had saved a few attempts, Ollie Watkins breached the Forest defence. The English striker was at the right place at the right time to convert Buendia's pass into the back of the net, levelling the tie on aggregate in the 36th minute.
The Villans switched into top gear in the second half, and Nottingham Forest couldn't handle the heat. Ten minutes after the restart, Nikola Milenkovic pulled Pau Torres' shirt in the box.
Referee Glenn Nyberg initially called for play to continue before heading toward the VAR screen to overturn his decision and point to the penalty spot.
Emiliano Buendia stepped up to take the penalty, and the Argentine converted from twelve yards, sending the ball to the bottom right of Ortega's goal to give Villa an aggregate lead in the tie.
Taiwo Awoniyi scored a brace at Stamford Bridge on Monday, but was sitting in the stands at Villa Park tonight, unable to help his deflated teammates on the pitch, considering he wasn't registered for the competition.
John McGinn then scored two goals in three minutes to kill any hopes of a Forest comeback.
The Scotland International was teed up by Morgan Rogers from the left side of the box. McGinn, coming in from the right side, sent the ball into the bottom corner of Ortega's goal.
The sequence repeated itself in the 80th minute, with both players linking up to score the fourth goal of the game. The only difference was that the Villa captain sent it to the bottom left of Ortega's goal this time.
Aston Villa will play the UEFA Europa League final against SC Freiburg on the 20th of May at the Tüpraş Stadyumu in Istanbul, Turkiye.
