Utrecht vs Nottingham Forest Prediction: Tricky Trees to stump hosts

Nottingham Forest were stunned as they suffered a 3-0 defeat at Everton in the Premier League at the weekend. The Tricky Trees are in action on Thursday (20:00 GMT, TNT Sports 1) as they travel to face Utrecht in the Uefa Europa League at Stadion Galgenwaard.

The hosts have only picked up one point from their opening five fixtures in this competition. Below you will find my Utrecht vs Nottingham Forest predictions, accompanied by the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Utrecht will be without the services of Davy van den Berg due to an unspecified injury.

Victor Jensen, Noah Ohio, Emirhan Demircan and Kolbeinn Finnsson are unavailable as they were not registered in the European squad.

Barkas Vasileios should return between the sticks after serving a suspension in the last round against Real Betis.

Sebastien Haller, Dani de Wit and David Min will tussle to lead the line on Thursday.

Football Odds

Ola Aina, Douglas Luiz (both thigh), Oleksandr Zinchenko (hip), Dilane Bakwa (unspecified) and Chris Wood (knee) are all ruled out for Forest through injury.

Ryan Yates is also set to miss out after he was taken off 15 minutes into his substitute appearance in the defeat at Everton at the weekend. Defender Murillo has missed his side's last three games through illness and a hamstring issue, so he too is a doubt for this clash.

Today's Football Fixtures

Utrecht vs Nottingham Forest Odds

Utrecht are 7/2 to win this clash but they are winless in the league phase and have won three of their last 16 matches across all competitions.

Forest have drawn their two away trips in the UEL so far and the stalemate is valued at 13/5. The Tricky Trees have won four of their last six competitive fixtures and they are 4/5 (implied probability of 55.6%) to collect the three points.

BTTS - No has been a winning selection in the visitors' past three outings in Europe and it is available at 10/11.

Match Result & Total Goals Over/Under 1.5 - Nottingham Forest & Over @ 23/20

Utrecht's form is troubling and it is affecting both their domestic and European campaigns. The Dutch outfit have given themselves a lot of work to do in the final three games in the league phase with just a point so far.

Forest suffered a setback at the weekend but they have been performing well in the Europa League, with just one defeat to date. They have beaten both Porto and Malmo and they are yet to be beaten on their travels, but they are also waiting for an away win.

This seems like the perfect opportunity to cross that off their list because nothing is working for Utrecht right now. I'm confident that Forest have more than enough to win this clash and I have boosted the selection by adding over 1.5 goals, which has struck in all but one of their European fixtures so far in 2025/26.

Forest have also managed to score two goals themselves in each of those four matches.

Clean Sheet - Nottingham Forest @ 7/5

I think there is also value to be had in backing Forest to keep a clean sheet because they have recorded shutouts in their previous three appearances in the UEL. Boss Sean Dyche likes his teams to be tough to break down and clean sheets are a foundation of the success he likes to build at the clubs he has worked for.

Against a Utrecht side that are really struggling in terms of results, I think the Tricky Trees can add to their frustration. The hosts have failed to score in three of their five appearances in the league phase this season and I think they will struggle to breach Forest's back line, which has been resolute in Europe in recent months.

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