Nottingham Forest extended their winless run to five matches across all competitions after falling 1-0 to FC Midtjylland in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League round-of-16 tie.

Midtjylland had previously taken the lead when these sides met in the league phase, and they came close to repeating the feat early on at the City Ground. Within three minutes, Philip Billing — who has four career goal involvements against Forest — delivered a cross to the back post for Junior Brumado, but a crucial Murillo clearance denied the header.

Despite losing Jair Cunha to injury, Forest recovered and began testing the Midtjylland goal from distance. Omari Hutchinson forced a smart save from Elias Olafsson, and when Ola Aina’s rebound fell to Igor Jesus, he could not keep it on target.

Olafsson then tipped a powerful long-range strike from Elliot Anderson over the bar, and a subsequent header from Jesus was cleared off the line by Billing. Forest’s best first-half chance came late when Hutchinson fed Morgan Gibbs-White in the box, but his goalbound effort was blocked, leaving the score 0-0 at halftime despite a combined total of 10 first-half goals in the competition between the two sides.

Forest started the second half brightly, with Aina seeing a shot blocked by Gibbs-White and Nicolas Dominguez narrowly missing from the edge of the area. However, worsening conditions — heavy rain and strong wind — hampered both teams. Midtjylland nearly struck first when substitute Valdemar Andreasen forced Matz Sels into a fine save and then hit the crossbar from a corner.

As the match entered its final 10 minutes, Forest’s attacking momentum faded, leaving them exposed at the back. Ousmane Diao delivered a perfect cross from the inside right for Cho Gue-sung, who shrugged off Aina’s challenge and headed into the bottom corner to give Midtjylland the decisive lead.

The hosts were unable to respond, meaning Forest face a significant challenge in next week’s second leg, with Midtjylland remaining unbeaten at home across all competitions this season.