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Nottingham Forest faces Porto in the first game under Sean Dyche.
Match preview
Sean Dyche has vowed to restore will and desire among Nottingham Forest players as he begins the biggest job of his career with a Europa League match against Porto.
Dyche was appointed on Tuesday to replace Ange Postecoglou, who was fired on Saturday minutes after a 3-0 loss to Chelsea.
Postecoglou failed to win any of his eight games in charge, leaving Forest with just five points from eight games in the Premier League and one point from two in the Europa League.
Dyche takes charge at the City Ground after leaving Everton in January and returns to the club where he began his youth football career.
But there is no time for feelings, with Dyche focused on making an immediate improvement in form.
“We need to get back to winning ways,” Dyche said at a news conference.
“I won’t bore people with statistics, but they didn’t particularly win at the end of last season. Maybe they ran out of steam, it was a great season.”
“It hasn’t been a great start to the season, we understand that, so there were some signs about what was needed and the changes.
“But I think there is a very good group here, a talented group. Last season they showed the will and the desire to be a good group; now we have to revive it and make sure it remains intact in the future.”
“I have managed more than 300 games in the Premier League. You can’t be lucky in all 330 games. You have to know how to solve it. And if you know that, the important thing is how far you can go.”
“I’ve had periods in my career where we had very, very strong periods. To take a small club like Burnley and get to Europe was incredible. But I don’t understand it anymore.”
“This is Nottingham Forest. This is bigger than all that.
“The staff, the team, the owners, everyone is in an uncomfortable situation for the first time in several seasons. It’s our job to find a way out of it. The first thing to consider is whether we can make this team remember very quickly how it was winning and if we can add our own imprint to that. That’s the challenge now.”
The immediate task ahead of Dyche is a clash with Porto, who are leaders of the Primeira Liga in Portugal and have made it two wins from two to start their Europa League campaign.
The flight from Porto to East Midlands Airport was reportedly delayed to allow for an inspection by the Portuguese Civil Aviation Authority.
Such a handicap will be quickly forgotten on Thursday if Porto can end their long wait for an away win in England in European competition, a feat they have never achieved. Francesco Farioli and his team will see meeting a team in Forest’s position as the perfect opportunity to change that.
Team news for Nottingham Forest – Porto
Ola Aina is still recovering from hamstring surgery, while Forest will be without ineligible Taiwo Awoniyi, Omari Hutchinson, Jair Cunha and Angus Gunn.
Luuk de Jong and Nehuen Pérez remain out of Porto after knee injuries.
Expected lineups for Nottingham Forest-Porto
Nottingham Forest: STAMPS; Williams, Milenkovic, Murillo, Zinchenko; Ndoye, Yates, Anderson, Hudson-Odoi; Gibbs-White; Wood
Port: D. Costa; A.Costa, Bednarek, Kiwior, Moura; Froholdt, Varela, Veiga; Pepe, Samu, Sainz
How to watch Nottingham Forest against Porto
Nottingham Forest v Porto kicks off at 8pm UK time. It will be broadcast on TNT Sports 1. It is available to stream on Discovery Plus and Sky Go for Sky customers with a TNT package.
The statistics of Nottingham Forest-Porto
- This will be Forest’s first major European match against a Portuguese rival. English teams are undefeated in the last 10 Europa League games against Portuguese teams (W3 D7). Sporting Braga’s victory over Wolves in 2019 marked the last victory for a Portuguese team.
- This is Porto’s 50th match in Europe against English rivals. It will be the fifth team to reach that number, after Barcelona (87), Bayern Munich (67), Real Madrid (60) and Juventus (53).
- Porto have lost more games against English teams than anyone else (27).
- Porto are aiming to win their first three major European games in a season for the first time since the 2012-13 Champions League campaign.
Prediction
Dyche will look to quickly instil the defensive solidity that Forest has been severely lacking this season, but Porto are a team with Champions League experience and more than enough quality to defeat the hosts.
Prediction: Nottingham Forest 1-3 Porto
