Nottingham Forest 3-0 Malmo FF
Europa League feature 
by Layth Yousif 
at the City Ground 

THE mist might not have been rolling in off the River Trent, but the floodlights still shone like a beacon to guide the way in the Nottingham dark. 

They came in their droves, true believers clad in red. Red shirts, red jackets, red bobble hats, even a smattering of red Christmas jumpers on a chilly late November evening. 

They were doing a roaring trade in pork and apple rolls at the appropriately named Cloughies Cob Stop. 

In the shadows of the late legend’s former kingdom, the shop’s red front lit up the crowds patiently queuing, as the anticipation grew ahead of a redux of a fixture that, to those of a certain vintage, was as magical as anything the fabled Robin Hood was said to have achieved outside the city’s nearby Norman castle. 

For they had gathered for Nottingham Forest versus Malmo FF. 

A repeat of the 1979 European Cup final. When Brian Clough’s unfashionable, and unfancied provincial outfit were about to stun the football world by becoming the smallest city to ever win the old trophy with the Big Ears, as Old Big Head himself might have put it during his glory days when Forest were kings of Europe. Twice in succession.

And now, 46 long years later, the two sides, one from England’s post-industrial heartland, the other from Sweden’s third biggest city, situated on its southwestern coast, the most successful team from that particular region of Scandinavia with its 24 league titles, were reunited ahead of Thursday evening’s Europa League fixture at the grand old City Ground. 

The controversial Forest owner, a larger-than-life character with a disdain for authority and traditional conventions, but a giant with a big heart and a penchant for nostalgia, had paid for the survivors from both teams from that long-lost night back in ’79, from the clash played at Munich’s equally long-lost Olympiastadion, to meet before the match. 

Just as Forest’s Greek chairman Evangelos Marinakis - for it was he - had arranged to pay the medical bills of the courageous Forest fans injured helping prevent a larger scale knife attack on an inter-city train earlier this month, so the owner generously brought together icons from five decades previously for a pre-match dinner amid bonhomie, and no doubt a tipple or two. 

“From the moment the Europa League draw was made,” explained Marinakis, “Malmo FF was the fixture that captured the hearts of our club and supporters. 

“I pledged that day to honour the unique bond forged in the 1979 European Cup final, and we looked forward to celebrating with all these legends from both sides for their historic achievements.” 

Naturally, there were sad omissions, as the course of time is cruel. 

The two architects from that never-to-be-forgotten night in the heats of Forest supporters, not to mention football romantics, and those who simply love mavericks on and off the pitch, had long since passed. The iconoclastic Clough died in 2004 aged 69, while his No2 Peter Taylor, passed in Majorca at the age of 62 back in 1990. 

Yet both were remembered in Forest fans’ colourful pre-match Tifo display. 

The pair immortalised together in their prime, as an image of the duo from that Munich final was unfurled over the appropriately named Brian Clough Stand. Homage was also paid at the Trent End in the form of further Tifo honouring the playing heroes of ‘79 including John Robertson. There was even a short film about the 1979 final projected onto the stadium before the game.

Also missing from Thursday evening’s red carpet, alas, was the scorer of the showpiece final’s only goal all those years ago in Bavaria, Trevor Francis, also no longer with us, sadly passing two years ago, at the age of 69, which is no age at all. While Forest’s rambunctious leviathan Larry Lloyd died last year, aged 75. 

All were remembered, and remembered warmly.

As for the living, Malmo’s Jan Moller summed it up fondly by saying: “It’s a tremendous thing that Nottingham Forest is doing for both teams.

“I’m so delighted [to be here], and I believe that Malmo FF are delighted also that we can all meet up on a very friendly basis.

“It’s going to be fun to sit down and speak with the likes of Peter Shilton. 

“I’ve been really looking forward to meeting the [former] players of Forest, especially Peter, being a goalkeeper myself. We haven’t seen each other for such a long time, so for us all to meet once again on this occasion is great.” 

Forest and their long-suffering fans have stoically endured barren years in the intervening decades since their double European Cup success - falling as far as the third tier - even if memories still shone bright of 1979. And their 1980 triumph, of course. 

Which saw the modest East Midlanders beat Hamburg at Real Madrid’s mighty Estadio Bernabeu. The victory coming after defeating the all-conquering Liverpool side over two legs earlier that campaign, highlighting the now unfathomable fact that only a country’s title winners were allowed to compete in the tournament back then. 

The ailing Clough departed the club in 1993 - unable to prevent Forest from slipping back into the second tier, the division where he found them, after taking over in 1975, via an unhappy spell at Leeds, prior to leading Forest’s bitter rivals Derby County to a league title. 

Since Clough’s exit, there have been, count them, 39 managers in the City Ground hotseat, with the last but one, Australian Ange Postecoglou, lasting a hapless 39 days this autumn, after owner Marinakis underlined his ruthlessness in pursuit of success by unceremoniously sacking the underperforming Ange. 

For long parts of last season, Postecoglou’s predecessor Nuno Espirito Santo looked to be leading Forest back to the promised land of Europe’s top domestic competition. Alas, a late season collapse in form saw them pipped at the post, which ultimately cost the affable Portuguese head coach his job, in early September. 

However, present incumbent Sean Dyche has started promisingly. 

The former academy player who earned his managerial stripes as the trenchant boss of over-achieving Burnley assumed the reigns a matter of weeks ago, and has already stamped his no-nonsense hard-working ethos at the club. 

Under Dyche’s recent leadership Forest have fought their way out of the Premier League relegation trapdoor, to ease into 16th position, with the promise of further elevations, not least in the aftermath of beating Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield last time out.

Yet, even Dyche, a straight-speaking character, was not averse to hailing the historic achievements that came long before him, saying: “The historic night in Munich on May 30, 1979, will always be such an important part of our club’s identity, so we are delighted to be hosting a team who share that famous part of our story, “ adding, “We are pleased this evening to have welcomed 13 members of the Malmo squad from 1979 [after] our owner wanted to mark this game in style.” 

Such was the prematch excitement around the City Ground, not least at Cloughies Cob Stop, where clusters of excited fans proudly sported their colours, Garibaldi red, and where even the supporters’ printed Forest fanzine ‘Oh Mist Rolling In’ had produced a European special to go with its usual matchday publication. (Its front cover for league games displayed a banner headline stating: “Don’t worry, every little thing is going to be Sean Dyche.”)

The unsentimental Dyche made seven changes to the side that overcame Arne Slot’s faltering Reds 3-0 last Saturday.

John Victor, Zach Abbott, Morato, Ryan Yates, James McAtee, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Arnaud Kalimuendo were all drafted into the starting XI, with Dyche no doubt already having one eye on the league clash with Brighton this coming Sunday.

There was a lovely touch as survivors from both the Forest and Malmo teams that took part in the 1979 European Cup final were invited onto the pitch before kick-off, as the crowd of 28,941 acclaimed the entire gathering. 

After the club’s rousing anthem, an adaption of Wings’ Mull of Kintyre, The Mist Rolling In, was sung loudly by the stadium, the pre-match cordiality vanished the moment German referee Harm Osmers blew the whistle.

The home side aimed to rise from 25th spot, into at least the play-of places of the Europa League with a win over their tepid Swedish opponents, who started in an even more lowly 33rd position. The underperforming Swedes arrived in Nottingham with a single point from four games, following a frustrating sixth-place defence of their 2024 Allsvenskan title, which resulted in the sacking of their previous manager Henrik Rydstrom in September. 

The difference in quality between the two sides was evident from the start, when Kalimuendo’s left footed effort flew narrowly past Melker Ellborg’s far post after only 120 seconds. 

Two minutes later Nicolas Dominguez’s header arrowed the wrong side of Ellborg’s left-hand, while Malmo’s former Celtic and West Ham wideman Sead Haksabanovic drive from outside the box was safely gathered by Forest’s Brazilian reserve keeper Victor. 

On 20 minutes Abbott fired over the bar as Forest strove for an opener, which was to come eight minutes later, when local lad Yates steered the ball into the net to make it 1-0, after the ball broke to him on the edge of the box. 

The City Ground erupted, but with many surely unaware of the fact that the 28-year-old Nottingham-born captain had now scored for his boyhood club on every day of the week. 

On 34 minutes Hudson-Odoi’s right footed effort from outside the box was palmed away by the increasingly busy Ellborg, prior to Malmo’s keeper foiling Nikola Milenkovic’s header on the line, from Hudson-Odoi’s subsequent corner. 

The former Chelsea attacker, via an unhappy spell at Bayer Leverkusen, showed his quality when driving at the back-pedalling Malmo defence, before unleashing a low shot that Ellborg did well to push wide. 

As the clock ticked towards the interval, there was time for £26m summer signing from Rennes, Kalimuendo to fire home from close range, his first for the club. The opener coming after Ellborg could only parry Yates’ header, to double the lead and make it 2-0 at half time. 

Forest made it 3-0 on 58 minutes when Nikola Milenkovic fired home, with VAR confirming the goal, to the delight of the home fans at the City Ground. 

Yates tested Ellborg with a low shot on 68 minutes, while Hudson-Odoi almost added a fourth when his impudent curling effort clipped the crossbar, as Forest outclassed a Malmo side containing familiar names to English football. The Swedes line-up including Colin Rosler, the son of former Manchester City striker Uwe, as well as Daniel Gudjohnsen, former Chelsea Premier League winner Eidur’s son. Yet at the final whistle the visitors had failed to have a single touch inside Forest’s box. 

With eminently winnable fixtures to come at Utrecht and Braga, as well as the visit of Ferencvaros in the new year, and now a mere two points between Forest and the prospect of automatic qualification in the top eight for the quarter-finals, there is no reason why the regulars at Cloughies Cob Stop, not to mention a fevered City Ground shouldn’t be dreaming of further European glory, nearly half a century after their last heartening exploits created headlines across the continent. 

As Dyche said after the match, “I was very pleased with our mentality. 

“And I’m pleased for the crowd as well because the European campaign is really important to them - and us.”

While captain Yates added: “These nights at the City Ground in Europe, we have to cherish them. They are just so special.”

As the satisfied crowds clad in red trooped away under the glare of the floodlights into the dark Nottingham night, judging by their warm reaction to such a fond trip down memory lane, sparked as it was by such stirring folklore, as well as the wonderful pre-match reunion of their old heroes, Dyche and Yates were absolutely spot on about that.