Nottingham Forest vs Malmo FF Prediction: Forest to stand tall at home

Nottingham Forest's tails will be up on Thursday (20:00 GMT, TNT Sports 1) when they take on Malmo FF at the City Ground in the Uefa Europa League. The Tricky Trees earned a statement 3-0 win at Liverpool in the Premier League on Saturday.

Sean Dyche's side have work to do in Europe, with just the one win to their names so far. Below you will find my Nottingham Forest vs Malmo FF predictions, aided by the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Ola Aina (thigh), Douglas Luiz (thigh), Chris Wood (knee), Oleksandr Zinchenko (hip), Dilane Bakwa (unspecified) and Angus Gunn (knee) are all unavailable for Forest due to various injuries.

Gunn is also ineligible, along with with Taiwo Awoniyi, Omari Hutchinson and Jair Cunha - with none of them named in the Tricky Trees' Europa League squad.

Despite winning at Liverpool, Dyche could be tempted to make some changes here to give some players a chance to impress, while potentially handing some key personnel a rest ahead of a home clash with Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League on Sunday.

So Morato could come in for one of Murillo or Nikola Milenkovic, while John Victor may operate between the sticks in place of Matz Sels.

Football Odds

For Malmo, Arnor Sigurdsson (thigh), Gentian Lajqi (ACL) and Erik Botheim (broken leg) are sidelined through injury.

Daniel Gudjohnsen is back in contention after serving a two-game suspension, but the forward may have to settle for a place on the bench in the East Midlands.

After missing the last two games with an issue, Lasse Berg Johnsen will need to be assessed ahead of Thursday.

Two former Premier League players in Pontus Jansson and Robin Olsen will be pushing to start at centre-back and in goal respectively.

Today's Football Fixtures

Nottingham Forest vs Malmo FF Odds

Forest are the 1/5 favourites to prevail here and they have won their last two competitive matches. With Malmo just scoring two goals in the opening four games, Forest are 4/5 to win to nil, which has an implied probability of 55.6%.

The Tricky Trees have drawn two of their UEL matches to date and the stalemate is valued at 5/1.

Malmo are yet to win in this competition and they are 12/1 to stun the hosts on Thursday.

To Win To Nil - Nottingham Forest @ 4/5

After going to Anfield, scoring three goals and registering a clean sheet, Forest should fancy themselves to go out and beat Malmo at the City Ground on Thursday. The hosts are looking to start building some consistency in Europe, and now that they have started to do that in the Premier League with back-to-back successes, they will look to translate this to the European stage.

There will be confidence amongst the players and they will be spurred on by the fact that Malmo remain winless in the Europa League, and the Swedish outfit have only managed to score two goals from their opening four matches in the league phase.

Forest have now scored six goals in their previous two appearances heading into this contest, so I have no doubts of their attacking firepower against Malmo. I think they are improving defensively, and it is worth noting that their only win in this competition so far came against Porto, who boasted one of the best defensive records on the continent.

Total Goals - Under 3.5 @ 8/15

For my second pick, I like the look of covering under 3.5 goals. I do see Forest having no real issues winning this game and I doubt they will need to go to extreme lengths to see the victory through.

Malmo have really struggled in this competition in the first half of the league phase and they will find it difficult to try and break down a defence managed by Dyche. With the Tricky Trees shutting out Liverpool last time out, I think Forest can nullify the attacking talents in Malmo's squad.

So it may only take a couple of goals for the home team to put an important three points on the board on Thursday. There have been fewer than four goals scored in each of their last two Europa League appearances, with clean sheets being recorded on both occasions.

Additionally, under 3.5 goals has been a successful bet in all four of Malmo's encounters in the league phase in 2025/26.

Football - 2 Up Early Payout

Pre-Match bets on the 2 Up Early Payout market in selected games. Paid as a winner within 5 minutes if your team goes 2 goals ahead. Selected leagues only. 90 mins only. T&Cs Apply.

Sports Welcome Offer

New customers only. Deposit via Debit Card & place first bet £10+ (1/1+) on Sports in 7 days. £30 Sports & £20 Acca Free Bets within 10 hrs of settlement. 7-day expiry. Eligibility, payment excl. & T&Cs Apply.

You can read all our latest Football Betting Tips at our dedicated Betfred Insights content hub.