Nottingham Forest vs. Burnley: Preview, team news, h2h, predicted XI with Ola Aina

Nottingham Forest host Burnley on Sunday, April 19, 2026, in matchweek 33 of the Premier League at the City Ground, Afrik-Foot reports.

The two sides arrive at opposite ends of the table but with very different emotional weights. Forest come into the fixture on the back of a heroic Europa League quarter-final win over Porto and will look to channel that momentum into a result that pushes them clear of the relegation zone. Burnley, meanwhile, are nursing a seventh-straight home defeat and now look almost certain to drop back into the Championship.

The City Ground is a place of rare euphoria right now. Vítor Pereira’s side are unbeaten in five matches across all competitions and have reached their first European semi-final since 1984. The challenge, however, is now one of game management. Forest must navigate a fresh wave of injuries, while their visitors are trying to absorb the home side’s energy with a long list of unavailable players and the cumulative damage of a season that has slipped away.

Match preview

Nottingham Forest arrive in good spirits after a 1-0 victory over Porto on Thursday, at the City Ground.

Captain Morgan Gibbs-White scored in the 12th minute of a contest that tilted further in the hosts’ favour after Porto defender Jan Bednarek was sent off in the eighth minute for a high challenge on Chris Wood. The aggregate finished 2-1, and Forest sealed a place in the Europa League semi-finals, where Aston Villa await in an all-English tie.

It was the club’s first European semi-final since 1984, when they fell to Anderlecht in the old UEFA Cup. The night was also marked by a tribute to Helen, mother of midfielder Elliot Anderson, who passed away in the build-up to the fixture. Gibbs-White held up a shirt in her memory while celebrating his goal, with the player describing it as one of the most emotional nights of his City Ground career.

The euphoria, however, comes with a serious dose of concern. Wood was forced off early after the challenge that earned Bednarek his red card, on the same knee that he had operated on in December. It was only the New Zealand international’s third match back after a six-month layoff. Murillo and Callum Hudson-Odoi also limped off during the second half with muscular issues.

Before the European tie, Forest had drawn 1-1 with Aston Villa in the Premier League on April 12, with Murillo’s own goal cancelled out by Neco Williams. It was the team’s fourth straight league match without defeat, a run that began with a goalless draw at home to Fulham on March 15.

With 33 points from 32 matches, Forest sit 16th in the Premier League, three points clear of the relegation zone. The remainder of the season carries a triple priority: securing top-flight status for the fourth consecutive year, chasing an unlikely European trophy and managing a treatment room that is suddenly bulging again.

Burnley find themselves in the opposite reality. Scott Parker’s side occupy 19th place with 20 points, 12 behind West Ham United, the first team outside the relegation zone, with only six matches remaining. Mathematics still permits hope, but the picture on the pitch is telling another story.

On Saturday, April 11, the Clarets were beaten 2-0 at home by Brighton at Turf Moor, with Mats Wieffer scoring both goals. The result extended their winless league run at home to 175 days. Their broader form is even more sobering: just one victory in their last 22 Premier League matches, with eight draws and 13 defeats across that span.

The defensive numbers are the most damning. Burnley have conceded 61 goals in 32 matches, the worst defensive record in the league. For Forest, Sunday is about confirming their favouritism and opening more space between themselves and Tottenham and West Ham before the run-in. For Burnley, it is about responding in a fixture that, on paper, is one of the most winnable on their remaining schedule.

Head-to-head record

The recent Premier League record between Forest and Burnley tilts slightly towards the Lancashire side. In 16 top-flight meetings tracked by FotMob, Burnley have won seven, Forest three, and the remaining six have ended level. The balance has shifted closer in recent years as Forest have re-established themselves in the top flight.

The most recent picture is one of stability. The reverse fixture this season, played on September 20, 2025 at Turf Moor, ended 1-1. Williams opened the scoring inside two minutes from a Douglas Luiz corner that took a deflection off Maxime Estève. On 20 minutes, Jaidon Anthony levelled the contest by capitalising on a slip from Oleksandr Zinchenko. It was Ange Postecoglou’s first point as Forest manager, in his third match in charge.

Their previous meeting before that, on the final day of the 2023-24 Premier League season, ended in a 2-1 Forest win at Turf Moor, with both goals scored by Wood, the current Forest number 11 who has a glittering history at Burnley, where he scored 53 goals in 165 appearances. His latest knee injury, picked up against Porto, removes that storyline from the equation in the very fixture where it would have resonated most.

Team news for Nottingham Forest vs. Burnley

Forest arrive on Sunday with a growing list of selection problems. Long-term absentees John Victor (knee), Willy Boly (knee) and Nicolò Savona (knee) are joined by fresh concerns over Wood, Murillo and Hudson-Odoi, all of whom went off injured against Porto.

Wood’s situation is the most sensitive. The New Zealand striker took a heavy hit from Bednarek on the same knee he had operated on in December, with this only being his third game back after six months out. The likelihood is that he will be rested with the league run-in in mind. Murillo and Hudson-Odoi will be reassessed, but their chances of facing Burnley appear slim. Super Eagles striker Taiwo Awoniyi has worked his way back to fitness and form and he could be trusted to deputise for Igor Jesus in attack.

Anderson is once again a doubt in midfield. The English international missed the Porto tie following the death of his mother, and there is no clarity yet on his return. Should he be unavailable, Nicolás Domínguez or Ryan Yates are the likely options to partner Ibrahim Sangaré. The defence may feature Jair Cunha or Morato in place of Murillo, with Ola Aina, the Super Eagles defender, and Williams continuing as full-backs. Matz Sels is expected to return between the posts after Stefan Ortega started in the Europa League.

Gibbs-White remains the central figure of the project and is enjoying his best run of the season. The Forest captain has nine goals and two assists in the Premier League 2025-26, making him the team’s leading scorer in the league, and grabbed the goal that sealed the European semi-final spot. He carries an average FotMob rating of 6.99 and 8.65 in accumulated xG, numbers that place him among the best attacking midfielders in the league heading into the run-in. Igor Jesus continues as the focal point of the attack, with 12 goals across all competitions this season, and is likely to start against Burnley with Wood unavailable.

On the Burnley side, the absentee list is long and worrying. Captain Josh Cullen (cruciate ligament) remains out until September. Jordan Beyer, Connor Roberts, Hannibal Mejbri (all muscular issues) and Mike Trésor are also confirmed absentees. Zeki Amdouni has returned to training after recovering from his cruciate ligament injury, but is not yet available. Axel Tuanzebe is a doubt with an Achilles tendon problem.

Zian Flemming, the team’s leading scorer with eight Premier League goals, is set to lead the line. The Dutch forward averages a goal every 148 minutes, a rate that placed him among the top 10 most efficient strikers in the league at the March international break, alongside the likes of Erling Haaland. The catch is that Flemming has scored seven of his eight goals on the road and has only one home goal in the league this season.

Predicted Nottingham Forest line-up: Matz Sels; Ola Aina, Nikola Milenkovic, Jair Cunha, Neco Williams; Ibrahim Sangaré, Nicolás Domínguez; Omari Hutchinson, Morgan Gibbs-White, Dilane Bakwa; Igor Jesus. Manager: Vítor Pereira.

Predicted Burnley line-up: Martin Dúbravka; Bashir Humphreys, Hjalmar Ekdal, Maxime Estève, Quilindschy Hartman; James Ward-Prowse, Florentino Luís; Marcus Edwards, Lesley Ugochukwu, Jaidon Anthony; Zian Flemming. Manager: Scott Parker.

Standout players for Nottingham Forest vs. Burnley

The managers

Pereira took over at Forest on February 15, becoming the club’s fourth manager of the season after Nuno Espírito Santo, Ange Postecoglou and Sean Dyche. The Portuguese arrived with a triple mission: stabilise the dressing room, escape relegation and keep the Europa League dream alive. He has done more than that, leading Forest to their first European semi-final in over four decades, knocking out the very Porto side he managed in two separate spells.

Pereira’s style is built around a mid-block and vertical transitions. It was the same blueprint that helped him save Wolverhampton from relegation in 2024-25 and that has now given consistency to Forest, with a back four and intelligent rotation between competitions. The unbeaten run has reached five matches across all fronts, and the team enters Sunday’s fixture carrying high morale and a heightened responsibility to confirm their escape from the bottom three.

Speaking to TNT Sports after the Porto win, Pereira made it clear where his attention now sits: “It is just Burnley in my head at the moment. It is too much to think about Villa too. I will think about it after Burnley. It will be a tough game; we need our supporters again. We need to go again as a family.”

Parker is enduring intense scrutiny. The English manager guided Burnley back to the top flight after winning the Championship title, but he has not been able to translate that Championship form to the Premier League. The sequence of home defeats has exposed defensive frailties and a struggle to build any sustained momentum. Parker tends to alternate between a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-3, with regular use of attacking set-pieces.

Squad management on Sunday is a particular challenge. With so many absentees and a group worn down by a historic winless home run, Parker must find a solution that protects competitive identity without further damaging morale.

Tactical preview

Forest are expected to stick with the 4-2-3-1, with Gibbs-White as the central creator. The number 10 operates as a free attacking midfielder, receiving between the lines and taking responsibility for linking the midfield to the attack. Sangaré and Domínguez (or Yates) provide protection to the back four, with Hutchinson and Bakwa filling the wide roles in Hudson-Odoi’s likely absence. Igor Jesus takes on the focal point of the attack with Wood out.

Forest’s main weapon is the rapid transition. Against Porto, even with a numerical advantage from the eighth minute, the team chose to maintain compact blocks and exploit counter-attacking spaces, a pattern that has been consistent since Pereira’s arrival. Williams is an attacking reference on the left flank, with the ability to strike from outside the box.

Forest’s vulnerability is, paradoxically, their home record. Under Pereira, the side has yet to put together a sequence of wins at the City Ground, accumulating more draws than victories. Against an almost-relegated opponent, the expectation is that the hosts can shift from controlling the ball to genuine attacking dominance.

Burnley should also line up in a 4-2-3-1, with Flemming as the central reference. Ward-Prowse and Florentino Luís form the holding midfield pair, with Edwards, Ugochukwu and Anthony in the attacking band. The team typically gives up possession to focus on transitions and set-pieces, an area where Ward-Prowse is particularly dangerous thanks to his quality from free-kicks and corners.

With the worst defence in the league and a negative run, Burnley may struggle to absorb sustained pressure. Parker is likely to prioritise compactness, dropping the block deep to limit the spaces between the lines that Gibbs-White loves to exploit.

The key battle is in midfield. If Forest press Burnley’s build-up with Gibbs-White joining the first line of pressure, Florentino Luís may find himself isolated. Conversely, if the Clarets manage to keep possession in patches and draw their opponents out, Flemming can find space behind the Forest holding pair. The outcome may rest on who wins the individual duels and the efficiency in set-piece situations.

Betting tips

The picture is one of clear favouritism for Forest, with odds around 1.60 for the straight win. Position in the table, the home factor, the morale boost from European qualification and superior technical quality all favour the hosts. On the other side, Burnley arrive on a seven-match winless home run, are dealing with heavy absences and carry the psychological weight of a campaign that is all but over.

The first tip with good value is under 2.5 goals in the match, with odds around 2.00. The market matches both teams’ profiles: Forest have alternated low-scoring matches since Pereira’s arrival and lost important attacking pieces against Porto. Burnley are the worst visiting team in the Premier League for attacking output, with serious difficulty creating clear-cut chances on the road.

A second interesting tip is Zian Flemming to have a shot on target, with odds around 1.85. The Dutch forward averages 2.8 shots per game and 43% shooting accuracy on target, solid numbers for an individual market against a defence that may have Cunha as an improvised starter in place of Murillo.

For those who want to combine risk and return, Forest to win and under 3.5 goals, with odds around 1.80, is a consistent option. The combination of the home factor with the conservative defensive profile that Forest have adopted under Pereira lends solidity to this tip.

An alternative for those chasing higher odds is Morgan Gibbs-White to score anytime. The captain is the team’s leading Premier League scorer, the main set-piece and penalty taker, and arrives off the back of his decisive goal against Porto.

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Score prediction

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