Vitor Pereira has reflected on Nottingham Forest’s disappointing 4-0 defeat to Aston Villa on Thursday, blaming their injury crisis for the heavy loss.
The Tricky Trees were looking to reach a third major European final after the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons when they won the European Cup.
Forest entered the clash with a one-goal advantage from the first leg, but the heavy defeat sent them crashing out of the competition at the semifinal stage.
It also marked the second time in which they have been eliminated from their last 14 knockout ties in European competitions after winning the first leg, with the other one being the UEFA Cup semifinal against Anderlecht in 1983-84 season.
However, they were without several starters for the encounter, with the likes of Dan Ndoye, Ola Aina, Morgan Gibbs-White among several others absent from the clash.
“To compete in a semi final and against a team like Aston Villa, we need everyone in the conditions to compete”, Pereira said.
“If you look before the game on the bench we had three players, because the other ones were injured. Our bench today the only solutions we had from the first team was Bakwa, Luca, Murillo we tried but he was injured and not in condition, and Yates. This is very short to come here without solutions.”
Ollie Watkins opened the scoring in the first half, before Aston Villa scored three times in the second half to book their spot in the final.
Emiliano Buendia and John McGinn (2), grabbed the remaining goals to send Unai Emery to a sixth European final in his managerial career.
“Playing against Chelsea and then travelling again to come here after three days, it was not possible. I’m very proud of our supporters, they tried on this long road to help us, but it was not possible. It is a pity but I am proud of my players because they tried everything”, Pereira concluded.
Vitor Pereira will now hope Nottingham Forest bounce back to winning ways in their remaining three league games of the season as they battle survival in the Premier League, beginning with Sunday’s stern test against Newcastle United.
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