Nottingham Forest slipped to a narrow 1-0 defeat away to SC Braga after a second-half own goal, a result that leaves the Tricky Trees outside the top eight with one league-phase game remaining.

On a damp and gloomy evening in northwest Portugal, the action on the pitch struggled to rise above the muted atmosphere inside a sparsely populated Estádio Municipal.

Forest showed early intent, with Morgan Gibbs-White testing Lukas Hornicek from a curling free-kick before skipper Ryan Yates tried his luck from distance, though his effort failed to trouble the Braga goalkeeper.

The hosts found chances hard to come by but went closest before the break when Victor Gómez delivered an inviting cross that Gabri Martínez nodded narrowly wide, beating Nicolo Savona to the ball. Florian Grillitsch then glanced a free-kick into the side netting in stoppage time as a largely uneventful first half drew to a close.

Braga emerged with greater urgency after the interval and almost struck within two minutes. Martínez again caused problems down the left, teeing up Ricardo Horta, but the winger could not sort his feet and prodded his effort over the bar.

Forest responded well and were handed a golden opportunity to take the lead when Savona was sandwiched between two defenders inside the area. However, Hornicek once again denied Gibbs-White, diving low to his left to push away the resulting penalty.

That miss proved costly almost immediately. Just a minute later, Horta combined neatly with Fran Navarro before squaring across goal, where Yates, under pressure, inadvertently turned the ball into his own net.

Both sides then came agonisingly close to adding to the scoreline. Ola Aina thundered a long-range strike against the crossbar for Forest, while Horta saw a first-time effort inside the box rebound off the post at the other end.

Forest pushed desperately for an equaliser late on. Dan Ndoye, later booked for simulation, took several attempts to control a cross before eventually picking out Yates, whose header was deflected over the bar.

Despite their efforts, Sean Dyche’s side could not find a way through and suffered a second defeat in seven Europa League outings.

Forest must now secure a positive result at home against high-flying Ferencváros in their final league-phase match to keep their knockout hopes alive — and will have to do so without Elliott Anderson, who was shown a late red card for abusive language towards the referee. Braga, meanwhile, strengthened their grip on a top-eight finish.