Nottingham Forest captain Ryan Yates has expressed disappointed after their narrow 1-0 defeat to Braga in Thursday night’s Europa League clash at the Braga Municipal Stadium.
Yates scored the only goal of the match, albeit an own goal that sealed the win for the hosts, as the Tricky Trees suffered their second European defeat of the season.
They are now 16th on the 36-team standings with 11 points and must now win their final match against Ferencvaros next week to stand a chance of a top-eight finish.
“Very disappointing. I feel we controlled most of the game. Obviously, it’s a very good team [we’re playing] away from home”, Yates said.
“I thought we stifled them. First off, they didn’t have any chances.”
There were very little opportunities in the first half for both teams to threaten although the English side had the best chance of the half as a free kick from Morgan Gibbs-White was brilliantly kept out.
Forest were then awarded a penalty few minutes after the restart for a foul on James McAtee, but Gibbs-White spurned the chance with a poor attempt.
Just 54 seconds later, Braga were in front as Yates put a cross from Ricardo Horta into his own net.
Elliott Anderson was sent off in stoppage-time for dissent as Braga seasl a 1-0 win to boost their own chances of a top-eight finish.
“We have an opportunity to make the breakthrough. We don’t. And then, unfortunately, I make a mistake on the other end and could never get a foothold in the game after that”, the defender added.
“That’s football. I think when you get an opportunity, you don’t take it, you get punished. I have to hold my hands up, and I should have done better. We’ve created a few more good chances, but unfortunately, it wasn’t our night.”
Forest resume league action this weekend when they visit the Gtech Community Stadium to face Brentford on Sunday.
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