Nottingham Forest will take a 1-0 lead to Aston Villa for next week’s second leg at Villa Park.
Chris Wood’s goal from the penalty spot was enough for Forest to take a slender advantage to the West Midlands after a cagey City Ground clash.
Following the game, we looked at the Forest players and how they played during the Trentside clash.
Nottingham Forest player ratings vs Aston Villa
Stefan Ortega – 8
Did whatever was asked of him with aplomb and is a superb understudy to Matz Sels. His distribution remains outrageous.
Ola Aina – 8
Went off injured and that is an issue, but he coped superbly well with the threats that Villa posed down the flanks.
Nikola Milenkovic – 8
Outstanding yet again from the big Serbian international who led by example.
Morato – 7
Nowhere near as bad as some make out and since he rolled his socks down has actually looked pretty steady!
Neco Williams – 8
Is there anything this man can’t do? Absolutely outstanding yet again.
Elliot Anderson – 9
Unreal performance from the Geordie Maradona and he is showing outstanding professionalism at the moment.
Nicolas Dominguez – 9
71% of the Earth is covered by water and the rest is made up by Dominguez! In all seriousness, what a performance from the Argentine who was thrown in to replace Ibrahim Sangare.
Omari Hutchinson – 8
Did really well to get Forest going, and in the first half, he showcased exactly what he’s capable of.
Igor Jesus – 7
Not quite his game as Villa stifled him a little bit, but still, he worked very hard.
Morgan Gibbs-White – 8
Some superb touches from the captain and he remains a man in superb form at the moment going into the final stages of the campaign.
Chris Wood – 8
Scored the winner and looked to hold the ball up whenever possible. Forest look a better side with him in the team.
Substitutes
Zach Abbott – 7
The academy graduate never looked out of place when he came on at right-back.
Ryan Yates – 6
Put himself about but probably didn’t have enough time to make an impact.
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