Nottingham Forest plays first home European game in nearly 30 years

Audio By Carbonatix

NOTTINGHAM, England (AP) — Nottingham Forest hopes to mark its first home game in European competitions in almost 30 years with the first win for recently hired manager Ange Postecoglou.

Forest faces Danish side Midtjylland on Thursday, a week after it opened its Europa League campaign with a 2-2 draw at Real Betis. It was the first game in Europe for the Premier League club since 1996, when it reached the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup, the predecessor of the Europa League.

“There are a lot of Forest fans that have grown up not experiencing Europe before, so it’s going to be exciting for everyone to see," striker Chris Wood said. “It’s history being made and something we want to achieve great things from."

Forest is winless in five games under Postecoglou since the former Tottenham manager took over from the fired Nuno Espírito Santo.

Another English club, Aston Villa, travels to Feyenoord boosted by its first Premier League win this season, 3-1 against Fulham, and following a 1-0 win over Bologna in the Europa opening round.

Scottish representatives Celtic and Rangers seek their first victories against Braga and Sturm Graz, respectively.

Roma hosts Lille, Lyon meets Salzburg, Stuttgart travels to Basel and Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv plays Dinamo Zagreb at Bačka Topola, Serbia. Israeli clubs have been playing UEFA-organized games in neutral countries for security reasons during the conflict in Gaza.

In the opening round of the third-tier Conference League, two-time runner-up Fiorentina hosts Czech side Olomouc and Crystal Palace travels to Lublin, Poland, to face Dynamo Kyiv.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer