Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Stefan Ortega admitted tonight’s exhausting Europa League win at Midtjylland had left them “tired” ahead of Sunday’s crunch Premier League clash with Tottenham.
Forest boss Vitor Pereira made nine changes to his starting XI but had to call upon regulars such as Morgan Gibbs-White, Elliot Anderson and Murillo as the tie went all the way to penalties. Forest eventually prevailed 3-0 in the shoot-out with the Danish hosts missing all three of their efforts.
Focus now turns to the weekend and a game that could have huge implications in the relegation battle.
Ortega told TNT Sports: “Everyone is happy, buzzing. Everyone is tired as well – it was a long fight today. We played so good, energy from minute one. A lot of changes but the energy was unbelievable and from the supporters who came a long way to see us. The situation in the league where we are too, this is such a good feeling.”
German Ortega feels the win will give Forest plenty of momentum going forward.
He added: “Everyone is tired but this should give us a big boost for the coming weeks. Big chance to get the three points [on Sunday], get above them and keep going.”
Nicolas Dominguez and Ryan Yates scored for Forest to put them in control only for Martin Erlic to make it 2-2 on aggregate. The teams could not be separated in extra-time before Forest showed the greater poise in the shoot-out.
Forest boss Pereira delighted with win
Pereira said: “Very happy, we proved today that we came to compete, we have good talented players. The first half was fantastic, on this difficult pitch we were at a high level. Second half we kept going, scored goals that were cancelled. But in the end we’re happy. We have to balance the players now for the weekend.
“I started to do the subs not because we were playing badly but to balance the energy and be ready for Sunday.”
Like Ortega, Pereira believes advancing to a quarter-final with either Porto or Stuttgart is the perfect filip before the weekend.
“It’s important [to win] – the energy and spirit is different when we win,” he said. “I have very good players and we showed everything today – team spirit and character. I don’t have any doubt that we have the quality. We will compete for our targets.”
