Nottingham Forest face Brighton and Hove Albion on the south coast in a crucial Premier League clash this afternoon
05:00, 01 Mar 2026
Callum Hudson-Odoi celebrates scoring for Nottingham Forest against Fenerbahce
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Callum Hudson-Odoi celebrates scoring for Nottingham Forest against Fenerbahce(Image: Getty)
Winger Callum Hudson-Odoi is determined to make sure Nottingham Forest’s European progress does not come at the expense of Premier League survival.
Competing on two fronts continues to be the challenge for the Reds now they are through to the last 16 of the Europa League. Vitor Pereira’s side made hard work of their play-off second leg on Thursday night but toppled Fenerbahce 4-2 on aggregate to set up a tie with Danish outfit Midtjylland in the next round.
Forest have ambitions of going far in the tournament, but they need to balance that against securing the points they need to stay up. After defeat to Liverpool last time out in the league, there is no getting away from the importance of this afternoon’s clash away to Brighton and Hove Albion (2pm kick-off).
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“We're trying to do the same in both,” Hudson-Odoi said of the Reds’ two-pronged assault. “We're trying to balance both and trying to get results in both.
“The Premier League has not gone our way as much as it could. For us, we're just going to keep focusing on that, focus on what we are and try to keep moving forward and keep going up the table with results.
“A million per cent this is a big, big, big game for us. We know that. Where we are in the table, we need to be getting points and trying to move forward and upwards.
“It's an important game. We’ll work on the stuff that we need to work on and hope to get the result done.”
After an encouraging first two games in charge, Thursday night represented a bit of a sea-change for Pereira. He shuffled his pack to give some players a rest and found the Reds’ second string are not quite at the same level as the first-choice XI.
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It is an issue that has dogged Forest all season, as has their lack of cutting edge in front of goal. As the club’s fourth head coach of the campaign, it now rests on Pereira to try to find solutions.
“He’s good,” Hudson-Odoi said of the Portuguese. “The atmosphere is changing and it’s gone up, so you can tell from the boys that everyone's fighting and trying to work hard to get results.
“He’s brought a great atmosphere, good energy, and he’s a good person to talk to as well. I think everyone's just looking forward to the future - hopefully getting results and doing as much as possible to stay in the league.”
It had been a dream start to his tenure for Pereira as he oversaw a 3-0 victory in Istanbul in his first match. That should have set the Reds up nicely for the return leg against Fenerbahce at the City Ground, but instead they endured something of a scare.
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Hudson-Odoi’s second-half goal from off the bench restored a bit of breathing space for the hosts after nerves had set in when they had gone 2-0 down on the night. For the 25-year-old, though, all that mattered was getting the job done.
“We play good football, you can see that from the game we were playing,” he said. “We controlled it at times for both legs, in the end. We did really well, but it was two sloppy goals to concede from us, we know that.
“But we'll reflect. We move on from it and hopefully next round, when we play, we’ll be better again. We've got to just keep building on that, keep building confidence and trying to get results.”
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