Nottingham Forest’s Europa League hopes remain intact after a comical own goal helped them get out of their quarter-final first leg in Porto with a 1-1 draw.
A much-changed Forest side were under the pump against the Primeira Liga leaders and fell behind to William Gomes’ early strike.
But they were gifted a leveller by hapless Porto defender Martim Fernandes, who sent a 25-yard back-pass into his own net.
Forest had a goal disallowed in the second half, but were reliant on goalkeeper Stefan Ortega making a string of important saves to ensure they head back to the City Ground for next week’s second leg on level terms.
Importantly, they were able to get the result while still being able to keep a number of their important Premier League players fresh ahead of Sunday’s vital clash with Aston Villa.
If Forest can get the job done on home soil next week, it looks highly likely as if Villa will be waiting in the semi-final after they won their first leg against Bologna.
Indeed, Villa were clearly on boss Vitor Pereira’s mind.
Forest were playing their first European quarter-final since losing to Bayern Munich in the Uefa Cup 30 years ago, but the Portuguese made it clear what his priority is, making nine changes to the side that beat Tottenham in the Premier League before the international break.
One of them was the returning Chris Wood, who was playing his first match since mid-October following a knee injury. And Wood had not touched the ball by the time Forest should have been behind inside 40 seconds.
Seko Fofana was sent clear down the right and he squared for Terem Moffi, whose shot was too close to Ortega, with the Forest goalkeeper then keeping out Borja Sainz’s follow-up effort.
It was little surprise when Porto took an 11th-minute lead.
A slick move down the left saw Pablo Rosario’s backheel set Gabriel Veiga free and his incisive ball across goal was slid home at the far post by William. Forest were rattled, but they were presented with an extraordinary gift just two minutes later.
Porto were in controlled possession and right-back Fernandes passed back to his goalkeeper Diogo Costa, but did so without looking and sent the ball wide of Costa and into an empty net for a comical own goal.
That allowed Forest to get a foothold in the game and they controlled things, but almost went in at half-time trailing.
Fofana’s cross was again perfect for Moffi, but the striker headed straight at Ortega. Forest thought they had taken the lead in the 63rd minute as Igor Jesus beat Costa to the ball and slotted home.
It looked like the Brazilian had won the challenge fairly but the goal was chalked off after a VAR check for handball.
Porto used their reprieve to good effect and came on strong. William forced another brilliant save out of Ortega, who tipped an effort around the post, before Deniz Gul curled just wide.
Victor Froholdt then put a shot agonisingly wide as Porto pushed for the first-leg advantage.
But Pereira, who guided the Portuguese club to an invincible league title campaign in 2011/12, enjoyed a satisfactory return to his former home, with the tie to be decided in Nottingham next week.
