Forest and Villa Advance to Europa League Quarters in Thrilling Fashion
Image Source: Internet
Nottingham Forest reached the Europa League quarter-finals after Midtjylland missed all three of their penalties in the last-16 second-leg shoot-out, while John McGinn inspired Aston Villa's 2-0 win against Lille on Thursday.
Vitor Pereira's Forest won 2-1 after extra-time at the MCH Arena in Denmark to level the tie at 2-2 on aggregate.
That set up the farcical shoot-out as Midtjylland's Cho Gue-sung and Aral Simsir both hit the post before Edward Chilufya slipped and blazed over in the shoot-out.
Morgan Gibbs-White, Ibrahim Sangare and Neco Williams converted Forest's three kicks to extend the club's first European campaign since 1995-96, when they reached the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.
The Premier League strugglers will play Porto in the quarter-finals after the Portuguese outfit beat Stuttgart 2-0.
William Carvalho and Victor Froholdt netted to clinch Porto's 4-1 aggregate victory, with Stuttgart's Nikolas Nartey sent off in the closing stages.
At Villa Park, Unai Emery's side, defending a 1-0 first-leg lead, went ahead in the 54th minute with a perfectly executed route one move.
Emiliano Martinez launched a mammoth kick towards Jadon Sancho and his pass across the Lille penalty area was tucked away with aplomb by McGinn.
It was the Scotland midfielder's first goal since January 3 after two months on the sidelines with a knee injury.
Bologna win thrillerLeon Bailey's 86th-minute tap-in from Ollie Watkins' pass ensured Villa advanced to a European quarter-final for a third successive season.
