Porto and Nottingham Forest meet again in the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals on Thursday night ET, with the Portuguese side trying to keep a perfect home record alive and Forest trying to repeat the result that shook the group stage. Forest beat Porto 2-0 at the City Ground in October, and this time the tie moves to a stadium where Porto have won all five of their Europa League home games this season.
That run gives Porto a clear edge on paper. They have reached their 18th major European quarter-final, and they are back at this stage for the first time since the 2020-21 Champions League campaign, when they were knocked out by Chelsea. Forest, by contrast, are in only their fifth major European quarter-final and their first since the 1995-96 UEFA Cup, when Bayern Munich eliminated them.
The history on both sides makes the tie feel bigger than a single knockout night. Porto have been beaten in their last four quarter-final ties since knocking out Spartak Moscow in the 2010-11 Europa League, while Forest’s track record at this stage includes progress in the European Cup in 1978-79 and 1979-80, and in the UEFA Cup in 1983-84. Porto, meanwhile, have only once won six European home games in a season, doing it in 2010-11 on the way to lifting the Europa League.
Forest’s earlier win over Porto came under former manager Sean Dyche, but the visitors now arrive under Vítor Pereira, who is set to manage against FC Porto for the first time. Pereira did face Porto B twice as SC Espinho manager in the II Divisão Série B in 2005-06, but this is his first senior meeting with the club. He is also only the second Portuguese manager to face Porto in the Europa League, after Domingos Paciência did it in the 2011 final with Braga, when Porto won 1-0.
There is also a form line that could decide the night. Borja Sainz has assisted in each of his last two Europa League appearances for Porto, and no Porto player has assisted a goal in three major European games in a row since Fredy Guarín in April and May 2011. If Porto manage that again, they will move one step closer to a record they have chased before; if Forest can turn the tie into a repeat of October, they will leave Portugal with a result they have already shown they can produce.
Forest have already lost once in Portugal this season, falling 1-0 at Sporting Braga in January in their only previous European away game in the country. That makes Thursday’s match more than a rematch. It is a test of whether Porto’s home strength can finally end a quarter-final slump, or whether Forest can carry the October result into the stage where the margins are supposed to get smaller.
