Vitor Pereira expressed deep frustration after Nottingham Forest suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to Midtjylland in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League round-of-16 clash, insisting that everything, even the weather, seemed to work against his side.
Forest dominated large stretches of the contest and repeatedly threatened the Danish visitors, firing 22 shots during the match.
Yet despite their attacking pressure, the hosts failed to find the breakthrough.
That inefficiency in front of goal has become a worrying trend for the Premier League side.
Across their last four home games, Forest have attempted 88 shots but have managed to score just once.
As the game progressed, Midtjylland remained patient and eventually capitalized on their moment.
Late in the encounter, Cho Gue-sung rose highest in the box to head home the decisive goal, handing the visitors a valuable advantage heading into the return leg.
After the final whistle, Pereira struggled to explain how his side walked away empty-handed despite their dominance.
“It is difficult to explain. We create so many chances to score a goal. Even if we draw, in my opinion, it was not fair,” Pereira revealed.
“The two chances they create, they score a goal. But we had enough time and I believe we had the quality to win the game.”
The Forest boss insisted his players did everything possible to secure a positive result but simply lacked the finishing touch.
“If you create a chance and we don’t score, in the end, we did everything to score. We did everything and were just missing the goals.
“I’m very frustrated that we did not score and they came here to draw but they won the game.”
Pereira even pointed to the sudden change in weather conditions during Forest’s strongest spell as another factor that disrupted his team’s rhythm.
“Even the rain played against us! The best moment we are playing, creating and the dynamic is good, the rain came.
“It was difficult with the rain. As I said before, keep the spirit and go there with the mentality to win the game. We will see.”
With the second leg looming, the Portuguese coach stressed the importance of regrouping both mentally and tactically.
“Now it is time to recover mentally.”
Forest will now shift their focus to the decisive return leg, where they must sharpen their finishing if they hope to overturn the deficit and keep their Europa League campaign alive.
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