Vitor Pereira: The team must quickly regain its fitness and match fitness in order to continue competing with Newcastle United.

Vitor Pereira acknowledged it was a disappointing day for Nottingham Forest, plagued by injuries, as the team was eliminated in the UEFA Europa League semi-finals. Nottingham Forest will be missing eight first-team players for the second leg at Villa Park.  

Nottingham Forest's manager admitted that Morgan Gibbs-White, Dan Ndoye, Ibrahim Sangare, and Murillo were included on the bench primarily to add experience and seniority to the team, while Jair Cunha had only recently returned from injury .  

Murillo returned from injury in the final stages of the match, but the manager stated that there was a risk in bringing the defender back to the pitch, given that he had missed the last three games. Vitor Pereira said that all the players who played gave their all to fight for a place in the final, but Nottingham Forest's task became more difficult against a resurgent Aston Villa.  

Vitor Pereira said: "The most important thing now is to win the rest of the season so that we can think about how to return to European competition. We have another game in a few days, we just played one a few days ago, and we have another one in a few days. Some non-European teams are even playing on Monday."  

“We suffered a lot of injuries because players are not machines and cannot withstand such a schedule. In the fight for a place in the final, we only had three substitutes available and risked playing Murillo. He was not fully ready, which was very difficult for us.”  

“We had one less day of recovery time than them, which could have a big impact. It was a disappointing day, but we must quickly get back into shape and regain our fitness to continue competing with Newcastle United. I hope our supporters can understand that the players have given their all in the game.”  

Image source: Internet/Nottingham Forest official website