Key events
GOAL! Bologna 1-0 RB Salzburg (Odgaard 26)
Dreadful defending from the Austrian side as they fail to deal with a cross – the ball bobbling out to Odgaard on the edge of Salzburg’s area, and the Dane whips it into the corner.
GOAL! Go Ahead Eagles 0-1 Stuttgart (Leweling 20)
Stuttgart are going well at the moment, fifth in the Bundesliga and secured a 3-3 draw at Dortmund at the weekend, with former Brighton striker Deniz Undav getting a hat-trick.
But it’s Leweling that has got the goal at Go Ahead Eagles, scoring with a neat trivela finish after being slipped through.
Nottingham Forest 0-0 Malmo
18 min: Abbott is not shy coming forward and takes aim from 25 yards, but the shot flies over. Neither side look particularly dangerous. You can tell that the home side are made up of mostly second-string players and tell that the visitors haven’t played a competitive game of football in 17 days.
Rangers 0-0 Braga
14 min: Butland makes an extroadinary save to deny Braga skipper Horta, who shot through a crowd of players towards the far corner. Horta was certain he had scored before Butland tipped it wide, and wore a face of disbelief afterwards.
GOAL! Genk 1-0 Basel (Oh Hyeon-gyu 14)
Oh Hyeon-gyu gets his third Europa League goal of the season – now joint top of the scoring standings in this competition – to give the Belgian side the lead.
Rangers 0-0 Braga
8 min: A very sluggish start by the home side. From what I have seen, there hasn’t been a huge improvement under Danny Röhl, although it’s still early days in his Rangers tenure.
GOAL! Maccabi Tel Aviv 0-1 Lyon (Abner Vinícius 4)
We have our first goal from the 8pm GMT kick-offs! A simple tap in for the Brazilian at the back post. This match is being played in Serbia, by the way.
Nottingham Forest 0-0 Malmo
3 min: Kalimuendo flashes a shot across the six-yard box after a lovely slide rule pass from Murillo. There is a nice blend of experience and youth in this Forest side, with Dyche making seven changes from the team that beat Liverpool on Saturday. Teenager Zach Abbott is in at right-back for just his fifth first-team appearance. Malmo are captained this evening by the former Leeds defender Pontus Jansson and have former Blackburn and Norwich defender Martin Olsson lurking on the bench.
Peeeeeeeep!
The 8pm GMT games are all underway.
The teams are out at both the City Ground and Ibrox. Tifos galore at the former, celebrating Brian Clough sat with Peter Taylor, plus Trevor Francis. It’s a special atmosphere.
This is what those early results do to the Europa League table. Celtic up to 17th and back into the safety of the playoff places.
Full-time: Aston Villa 2-1 Young Boys
Villa cling on for the victory and go level on points with leaders Midtjylland at the top of the league phase standings. Gosh, the English side made hard work of that at the end.
GOAL! Aston Villa 2-1 Young Boys (Joël Monteiro 90+1)
Young Boys give themselves a lifeline through Monteiro but only have four more minutes of stoppage time to find an equaliser!
Full-time: Feyenoord 1-3 Celtic
A famous and valuable win for the Glasgow side. Despite going 1-0 down, Celtic roared back with goals from Yang Hyun-jun, Reo Hatate and Benjamin Nygren.
Aston Villa, meanwhile, retain a 2-0 lead over Young Boys with around five minutes left at Villa Park.
Malen’s second goal there sparked furious scenes in the away end, with Young Boys supporters clashing with police. Punches were thrown and objects thrown at both the police and onto the pitch, with Malen himself being caught on the head by a plastic cup.
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.
