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Celtic have scored again, through Benjamin Nygren! They lead Feyenoord 3-1 now, and just have a few minutes of stoppage time to see out!
Nottingham Forest v Malmö teams!
Nottingham Forest: John Victor, Abbott, Milenkovic, Murillo, Morato, Yates, Sangare, Dominguez, McAtee, Hudson-Odoi, Kalimuendo.
Subs: Sels, Willows, Williams, Anderson, Ndoye, Igor Jesus, Boly, Savona, Whitehall, Thompson, Sinclair.
Malmö FF: Ellborg, Stryger Larsen, Jansson, Duric, Rosler, Haksabanovic, Johnsen, Skogmar, Bolin, Gudjohnsen, Busanello.
Subs: Olsen, Johan Karlsson, Lewicki, Christiansen, Ekong, Olsson, Berg, Botheim, Holmquist Vecchia, Busuladzic, Soumah.
Referee: Harm Osmers (Germany)
Rangers v Braga teams!
Rangers: Butland, Tavernier, Fernandez, Djiga, Aarons, Barron, Diomande, Raskin, Gassama, Danilo, Chermiti.
Subs: Kelly, Wright, Aasgaard, Cameron, Antman, Miovski, Meghoma, Curtis, Adamson.
Braga: Hornicek, Gomez, Lagerbielke, Niakate, Arrey-Mbi, Zalazar, Joao Moutinho, Gorby, Martinez, Navarro, Ricardo Horta.
Subs: Tiago Sa, Bellarouch, Lelo, Carvalho, El Ouazzani, Paulo Oliveira, Gabriel Moscardo, Victor, Dorgeles, Grillitsch, Rodrigues, Vidigal.
Referee: Allard Lindhout (Holland)
Villa are coasting towards victory over Young Boys thanks to two goals from Donyell Malen. With leaders Midtjylland losing 1-0 to Roma, that means Villa will go level on points at the top of the league phase standings, should the scores stay this way.
Martin O’Neill is on the verge of signing off as interim Celtic manager in style with a 2-1 win away at Feyenoord. Just 25 minutes to go for what would be a very impressive victory.
This is the current state of play in the early kick-offs, and a full run down of the 8pm kick-offs to come.
Preamble
Nottingham Forest v Malmö and memories of 1979. The two clubs have a special connection, also meeting in Forest’s last European campaign in the 1995-96 Uefa Cup, but it is the European Cup final 46 years ago that entwines these two together, with Britain’s first £1m player Trevor Francis heading the only goal of a pretty miserable final to clinch eternal glory for the red half of Nottingham.
“Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, grey-sweatered and anonymous amid all the colour and celebration, stood for a moment on a bench calmly observing the mafficking,” wrote David Lacey in 1979. Theirs has been an outstanding achievement that it is hard to see being repeated – from Second Division to European football in three seasons.”
It’s also interesting to pause a little on Malmö, who became the first, and to date the last, Scandinavian side to reach the final under English manager Bob Houghton. If you want to know a little bit more about that side and how they nearly conquered Europe, Jonathan Wilson does a pretty good job here.
This match is a far cry from that summit, closer perhaps to the Uefa Cup first-round tie between Forest and Malmö in 1995-96. Forest are absolutely buzzing after thrashing Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield on Saturday, while Malmö haven’t kicked a competitive ball since 9 November following the end of the Swedish league season (in which they finished a disappointing sixth). The smart money is on the English side tonight.
Plenty of other action on offer in this clockwatch. Rangers have already been beaten by a Braga this season (Striker Claudio Braga helped Hearts to a 2-0 win over the Glasgow side in September). Rangers are rock bottom of the 36-team Europa League standings at the half-way stage of the league phase with precisely zero points and one goal scored. They desperately need a victory if they are to have any hope of making a late surge for a playoff spot (they would have to finish at least 24th to do so).
We’ll keep you up to date with all nine of the 8pm kick-offs and provide the latest scores from the earlier matches, including Aston Villa v Young Boys and Feyenoord v Celtic.
