Nottingham Forest Chief Coach Nuno Espirito Santo believed that the first half of his party cost them a lot in their 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa.
The hosts were two goals in the opening of 15 minutes on Saturday, with Bos struggling to cope with the opening period.
But they succeeded in the attacks of Villa in Stemmen and returning to the procedure in the second half, with Jota Silva halving the deficiency at 57 minutes. While Nuno was encouraged by the way in which the visitors were picked up in the second 45, he concluded that the performance as a whole was not good enough.
He told Sky Sports after the game: “We didn't start well and Villa controlled the chances. The second half was different. We had the chances, but we couldn't score. The first half was not good, we were not organized.
'We have tried to find solutions. The boys showed a better game [after the break]. It was one of the matches that we made the most, but did not get anything from the game.
“If you lose, you don't recover so well, the kilometers come to you. It is always easy when you are at a good time, this is not so good, it requires a little patience.”
Forest player Neco Williams agreed with his boss and shared his frustration about their slow start of the game.
“They created many more opportunities and dominated,” he said. “We came in [at the break] And things had to change. Second half we created many opportunities, but it is the goals you need and unfortunately we just couldn't get them.
“Frustrating. We have created many opportunities, we just couldn't get it over the line, but the positives are there.”
Three points in Villa Park
– Aston Villa (@AVFCofficial) April 5, 2025
Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery, inversely, was happy with the first half, but was disappointed about how they were in the second waste.
“We started to dominate,” he said. “They played tactically, a medium-run block and we started to dominate because they did not press high, did not get out. We created opportunities and we scored goals.
“The second half, I am not happy. They changed their tactics and took more duels aggressive, pressed higher and we did not dominate as we had.
“But this victory is very important. Very happy with the victory. Very demanding from myself to improve things from the inside, but I am happy because we have three points more.”
Morgan Rogers got Villa to work and he said the Villa players would know that they had to start quickly.
Rogers scored the opening goal after 13 minutes, which was also his eighth of the season in the Premier League, with Donyell Malen getting the second shortly thereafter.
“We knew we had to start quickly and we knew it was a must-win if we wanted to come where we wanted to come to the Premier League,” he said.
“We were excellent and rightly came in. We knew they would come back in. They have that quality, but resisting that pressure is enormous for us.”
Rogers added from his goal: “I saw [Forest defender] Morato does not look and as soon as you got Tielemans the ball, I had to make the move. He has the quality to get me out of everything.
“I knew that I had to make sure that the first touch was good to get the chance. It fell perfectly and I am happy to put it away.”
A third consecutive league gain means that Villa is sixth in the table, only one point behind Chelsea in the fourth and six away from the third placed forest with seven games to play.
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