Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa: Europa League semi-final, first leg – live

18m ago13.25 EDTPreambleAn affirming feature of Cup competitions is getting to enjoy clubs, players, managers and supporters enjoying and detesting their biggest game in generations. But what is much rarer is to have two teams, from neighbouring regions, competing against each other in a contest which means that much to both, and is vitally important in its own right.The specific dynamics of our match this evening are also special. Villa are the superior team, fifth in the league having spent much of the campaign higher – there was, briefly, talk of a title challenge – but they’ve struggled in recent months and arrive at this evening in spotty form.

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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Guardian — Football.