Nottinghamshire, April 17 (IANS) Morgan Gibbs-White’s deflected first-half effort proved enough for Nottingham Forest to reach their first European semi-final since 1984 following a tense quarterfinal second leg against ten-man Porto.

Porto had started brightly in the opening leg seven days earlier and carved out the first chance of the return with barely a minute gone, Forest goalkeeper Stefan Ortega racing off his line to thwart Terem Moffi.

Any Porto momentum disappeared shortly afterwards when centre-back Jan Bednarek was dismissed for a challenge on Chris Wood, and the hosts took control of proceedings from there, captain Morgan Gibbs-White putting the Reds in front in the tie for the first time with a deflected strike that spun past the wrong-footed Diogo Costa.

Forest had a spell of pressure leading up to half-time, Omari Hutchinson and Murillo rustling the sidenetting and Nicolás Domínguez sending a glancing header fractionally wide.

The Dragons, revitalised by a quadruple change at the interval, came within centimetres of levelling ahead of the hour, William Gomes’ powerful volley from a Seko Fofana delivery cannoning back off the underside of the bar.

The Premier League team took time to find the fluency of their first-half play, though only a smart Diogo Costa stop prevented sub Igor Jesus from finding the far corner.

However, it was Porto who went closest to getting the second goal of the evening late on as sub Alan Varela’s dipping strike smacked the frame of Stefan Ortega’s goal.

One of the best nights I’ve had at the City Ground, thanks to the fans and everyone that’s made it happen. We said early on that we’d take this competition full-on and we deservedly got the win,” Gibbs-White said.

–IANS

bc/