NOTTINGHAM, England, March 12 : Nottingham Forest fell to a 1-0 home defeat to FC Midtjylland in horrible weather conditions in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday, while Olympique Lyonnais snatched a late 1-1 draw away to 10-man Celta Vigo.
Elsewhere, Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros beat Braga 2-0 and Genk had a 1-0 home win over Freiburg.
Forest had hoped to put their Premier League relegation battle to one side with a European win but for the second time this season, Danish side Midtjylland came away victorious from the City Ground, having won 3-2 in the league phase.
The hosts created plenty of chances in the opening half. Omari Hutchinson’s shot from outside the area forced keeper Elias Rafn Olafsson into a diving save.
Olafsson parried away a powerful strike from Ola Aina, with Igor Jesus sending the rebound wide and the Midtjylland keeper was in action again tipping over Elliot Anderson’s effort.
In torrential rain after the break, Midtjylland substitute Valdemar Byskov had two chances in quick succession, his first parried away by Forest keeper Matz Sels and from the resulting corner he smacked a shot off the crossbar.
The rain subsided, but there was plenty of water on the pitch making playing conditions difficult. Anderson did well to twist and turn his way into the box but his shot never troubled Olafsson.
Midtjylland found the winner with 10 minutes left, Ousmane Diao floating a cross into the box where Cho Gue-sung got in front of his marker Aina to guide a header past Sels into the bottom corner.
LYON LATE LEVELLER
Williot Swedberg’s cross to the edge of the six-yard area tapped into the net by Javi Rueda gave Celta a 25th minute lead but the hosts went down to 10 men 10 minutes after the break when Borja Iglesias received a second booking.
Lyon piled forward in search of an equaliser, with Steeve Kango hitting the post and Ionut Radu making a great save from Roman Yaremchuk’s header.
The home side almost held out but Endrick’s shot from outside the area crept under Radu with three minutes left.
Gabi Kanichowsky put Ferencvaros ahead in the 32nd minute, controlling Lenny Joseph’s pass before firing into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
Joseph doubled the lead with 21 minutes left, Cebrails Makreckis bursting down the right wing before rolling the ball across for Joseph to sweep into the net.
Genk’s Zakaria El Ouahd netted the only goal of the game in the 24th minute with a superb half-volleyed strike, finishing off a clever one-two with Bryan Heynen to beat Freiburg.
In Thursday’s earlier games, Ollie Watkins scored to earn Aston Villa a 1-0 win away to Lille, Bologna and AS Roma played out a 1-1 draw, a late penalty gave Panathinaikos a 1-0 home win over Real Betis, and Porto won 2-1 at VfB Stuttgart.
