Fenerbahce were surprisingly playing on Monday in their domestic league despite travelling to Nottingham Forest on Thursday night for a Europa League showdown after last week’s 3-0 defeat in Istanbul.
Forest hold the aces ahead of the week’s second leg, and an early goal for the Reds at the City Ground will pretty much ensure an easy progress into the last 16 for Vitor Pereira’s players.
Murillo, Igor Jesus and Morgan Gibbs-White scored over in Turkey last week and it remains to be seen whether the first leg performance will tempt Pereira to make any switches to his starting eleven.
Last night’s 1-1 draw with Kasimpasa has left Fenerbahce head coach Domenico Tedesco with more questions than answers and he has some issues ahead of coming over to England to play Forest.
Nottingham Forest star Igor Jesus scores vs Fenerbahce
Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images
Fenerbahce suffer Ederson and Soyuncu blows ahead of Forest clash
Ederson surprisingly swapped Manchester City for Fenerbahce in the summer, and he was the man who conceded all three goals in last week’s Europa League first leg.
However, he won’t be making the trip to England with journalist Yagiz Sabuncuoglu, explaining that the serial trophy winner with City will now be absent for three weeks.
Ederson did come through the full 90 minutes of last week’s game, but the early prognosis after the game is that he’s going to spend some time on the sidelines.
There was more bad news on the night for Fenerbahce over former Leicester City defender Caglar Soyuncu who was substituted early in last night’s game.
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He’s going to undergo an MRI scan today to find out the full extent of his injury, and he looked in some distress when he was substituted last night.
His injury leaves Tedesco with a huge issue. Milan Skriniar was injured in the first leg, whilst Jayden Oosterwolde’s yellow card on Thursday means he’s banned for the second leg.
Fenerbahce’s ridiculous squad concerns ahead of Forest test!😮
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Tedesco delivers update on Anderson Talisca
In a further blow to Fenerbahce’s plans for this Thursday, Anderson Talisca has some ‘problems’, Tedesco has confirmed after their latest league match.
Talisca has scored 21 goals in 37 matches this season for Fenerbahce, and the head coach will have been relying on him to come to the City Ground and fire his team back into the tie.
In his press conference, however, he confirmed there were some issues to contend with and namechecked Ederson, Talisca and Soyuncu as players with serious doubts surrounding them ahead of Thursday.
Naturally, Periera won’t pay too much attention to this, but the fact that Matteo Guendouzi played centre-back for most of last night does offer Forest hope for Thursday night.
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