Nottingham Forest sealed their spot in the playoff rounds of the Europa League season after a convincing 4-0 win over Ferencvaros, to the delight of manager Sean Dyche.
The Tricky Trees scored four goals in an European fixture for the first time since 1979, while ending the visitors seven-game unbeaten away record in Europe.
Brazilian forward Igor Jesus was the star of the show with a brace, adding to a late penalty by James McAtee and an early own goal by Bence Otvos.
However, the win was not enough to seal a top-eight finish, but they finished 13th and will be seeded for the playoffs draw.
“It’s a tough competition, they were unbeaten in this. I’m pleased with the reaction after a quite below-par performance in Braga – a statistically anomaly how we lost that game, but we did. But really pleased with the reaction to that”, Dyche stated.
“There are a lot of good signs. Obviously not the Braga game, but generally there have been clear signs of the progress, I’m sure.”
Otvos turned in a cross from Ryan Yates to give Forest the lead, before Jesus added a second four minutes later.
The Brazilian made it three after the break, before McAtee scored a fourth from the spot, his first goal for the club to complete the impressive win.
“Tonight was a reminder of the quality here, and that team-ship. That’s important. You know, [McAtee] gets his goal, and the first one over to celebrate was Morgan [Gibbs-White] and that showed the team-ship, the connection”, he continued.
“And I like that aspect to it, that feel of the group was very important.”
Nottingham Forest will face either Panathinaikos or Fenerbahce in the playoffs and will find out their opponents when the draw is conducted later today.
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