4 hours ago
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38 mins: Kante trips Hudson-Odoi around 30 yards from goal. Will someone take on the strike? No, it is taken short and ends up with Williams shooting, although his shot is deflected, concluding with Jesus jabbing wide.
36 mins: Milenkovic sends a bouncing ball back to Ortega but the goalkeeper deals with it well.
34 mins: Forest get the ball into the box once more but cannot find a crucial final pass.
32 mins: Gibbs-White tries to pick out Jesus running through but the pass has too much on it, allowing Ederson to collect.
Jesus dispossesses Soyuncu and plays it into Gibbs-White who tries to play in Hutchinson but the pass is intercepted.
30 mins: Talisca is down, so the referee has stopped play to avoid any silliness.
Tedesco has thrown his jacket away. Things are getting serious.
28 mins: Forest have a couple of corners in quick succession. Ederson comes and punches but it comes straight back, and it becomes very scrappy in the box until the flag is raised for offside.
Almost a second for Forest thanks to a fine team move, which ends with Williams picking out Gibbs-White but his header is straight at Ederson.
26 mins: Ben Chia emails: “I noticed an interesting name on Fenerbahce’s bench. Archie Brown, an English defender who came through West Brom and Derby’s academy but actually started his professional career at Lausanne in Switzerland. He’s now at Fenerbahce via Gent in Belgium. Quite an interesting career path for an Englishman surely?”
Absolutely, and I love an Englishman abroad.
Skriniar is off, Soyuncu on.
24 mins: Skriniar is down but Forest play on, with Jesus almost scoring. Fener’s players are absolutely fuming but there was no need to stop for Forest. Everyone needs to calm down. The referee has to calm things down after a melee.
23 mins: I did once have a chat with Joe Worrall about Murillo loving a shot from distance.
GOAL! Anderson wins the ball back in midfield and Murillo takes it on, charging forward from the halfway line to 20 yards from goal, before smashing a shot into the corner.
GOAL! Fenerbahce 0-1 Nottingham Forest (Murillo, 21)
Absolutely glorious from the Brazilian.
20 mins: Fener have a corner on the right, it’s a decent delivery but Mulder heads over from close range.
18 mins: Fener have a bit of possession, knocking it around the back with no great urgency. They probably need some of this to slow things down.
16 mins: Sangare produces a lovely bit of skill, beating two players in one go, to sum up the Forest superiority.
14 mins: I can’t imagine how loud it will become in the stadium when Fenerbahce string two passes together for the first time.
12 mins: Gibbs-White swings in the free-kick from the left after some argy-bargy in the box. The Forest skipper puts too much on the cross and it flies out of play.
10 mins: Hudson-Odoi is cleaned out for a cynical challenge from Skriniar. It’s a miserable challenge and he is rightly booked.
Meanwhile, Anderson is down with a hand/wrist problem.
8 mins: Forest are certainly on top at the moment and Hutchinson is looking far more confident than he did against Wolves.
Fenerbahce have offered next to nothing.
6 mins: Our man in Istanbul Ben Fisher has confirmed it’s very loud in the ground.
4 mins: Forest are looking positive and Hutchinson sends in a decent cross to the back post. The players in redare looking pretty jolly.
2 mins: Every Forest touch is being booed. It sounds quite deafening.
Forest have a corner on the left. Ederson punches clear and Fenerbahce eventually clear the ball to end the hissing.
Kick-off
Peep! Peep! Peep! Here we go!
“Forest have picked a tough place for a managerial Bosphorus bounce!” according to Peter Oh. “I wonder when Marinakis will be able to kick his habit of firing managers. Could he go cold Turkey today?”
Simon Frank makes a good point: “The Forest fan pictured is Ebby from Duisburg, who makes the trip over from Germany with astounding frequency.”
I was at Dyche’s final game in charge and Omari Hutchinson was underwhelming, to say the least. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to the new regime.
Pereira: “Today is three days working. but working to play in a way to try short communications, be very clear. Today I hope that I see my team play organised with tactical organisation, and be able to express themselves, play with courage and a mentality to win.”
There’s nothing to fear except fear itself.
Around 1200 Forest fans have travelled to Istanbul, which is a great effort. A long way to go at relatively short notice.
Cuddly toys on tour.
The Fenerbahce lineup is everything you want it to be … full of former Premier League players. Nelson Semedo is top of the list for me but I assume we all have a personal preference.
And a personal good luck from me.
Pereira goes with the strongest side available to him, eager to see what his players can do and showing Evangelos Marinakis he is taking the competition very seriously.
Ederson is in goal for Fener, meaning it is the former Manchester City goalkeeping bull pen on show, with Stefan Ortega down the other end.
Starting lineups
Fenerbahce (3-4-3): Ederson; Skriniar, Jayden, Mert; Semedo, Guendouzi, Kante, Talisca; Asensio, Cherif, Kerem
Subs: Tarik, Engin Can, Brown, Caglar, Yigit Efe, Ismail, Levent, Fred, Nene, Oguez, Alaettin
Forest (4-2-3-1): Ortega; Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams; Sangare, Anderson; Hutchinson, Gbbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Jesus
Subs: Gunn, Willows, Morato, Ndoye, Dominguez, Lucca, Yates, Cunha, McAtee, Bakwa, Abbott
Preamble
Vitor Pereira has survived four days in charge at Nottingham Forest, earning him a chance of managing the team for the first time tonight. He is here to keep Forest in the Premier League, so it will be interesting to see how seriously he takes the Europa League.
He had a spell at Fenerbahce, so will know how hostile the atmosphere can be in Istanbul.
Ben Fisher has written about his latest adventure.
Kick-off: 5.45pm GMT
