Nottingham Forest have faced Portuguese opposition at home just once in European competition, though that came against Porto when they beat them 2-0 at the City Ground back in October in the league phase of this season’s UEFA Europa League.
In their major European history, FC Porto have played 24 away matches in England and have never won (D3 L21). Their only ‘away’ win against an English side was against Chelsea in April 2021 in a UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg, which was played in Seville due to covid-19 restrictions.
Nottingham Forest have lost three home UEFA Europa League matches this season – no English side has ever lost four home games in a major European season.
Porto have failed to win any of their five UEFA Europa League games against English opposition (D2 L3), the most times they have faced sides from a particular nation in the competition without success.
This will be Nottingham Forest’s first major European quarter final on home soil since a 5-1 loss to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup in 1995-96. They’ve lost each of their last three home knockout matches in major European competition including that match, as many defeats as across their prior 21 such matches combined (W14 D4).
FC Porto have only won the second leg of four of their last 22 two-legged major European knockout ties (D6 L12), though one was against Stuttgart in the last 16 of this season’s UEFA Europa League.
Nottingham Forest’s Igor Jesus has netted seven goals in this season’s UEFA Europa League; only one Brazilian has ever scored more in a single season in the competition, Giuliano for Zenit St Petersburg in 2016-17 (8).
After scoring in the first leg, William Gomes’ became Porto’s top UEFA Europa League scorer this season with four goals. The last time a Brazilian netted five times or more for the club in a major European campaign was Galeno in the UEFA Champions League in 2023-24 (5), while the last to score more in the UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup was Derlei in 2002-03 (12).