Overview
- Nottingham Forest drew 1-1 with Aston Villa at the City Ground, with a Murillo own goal and a Neco Williams equaliser in Sunday’s match.
- The result left Forest three points above the relegation zone with six games to play, while Villa strengthened a top-five position that sits seven points clear.
- Pereira said memories of February’s stoppage-time defeat to Liverpool guided his late-game call to protect a point rather than risk leaving with nothing.
- Chris Wood made his league comeback from knee surgery off the bench, and Taiwo Awoniyi and Lorenzo Lucca were omitted to keep what Pereira called balance on the bench.
- Pereira rotated nine players between the Europa League trip to Porto and the Villa game and called balancing the league with a European quarter-final difficult, with Porto next before a home test against Burnley.