“Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that,” came the chant as Nottingham Forest supporters, not for the first time, enjoyed getting one over on Malmö. A lot has happened since Trevor Francis’s stooping header to clinch the European Cup in Munich in 1979 but Forest still cherish those days. A lot has also changed in the five weeks since Sean Dyche took the reins, Forest reinvigorated and a comfortable win thanks to goals by Arnaud Kalimuendo, Ryan Yates and Nikola Milenkovic enhanced their hope of qualifying for the Europa League knockout phase.
For Forest, this victory – against a Malmö side that had not played for almost three weeks after finishing sixth in their domestic league – represented a third straight win in all competitions and further built on the momentum gained from last weekend’s success at Liverpool. This was a re-run of Forest’s European Cup triumph in name but the game itself was free of any jeopardy or jitters.
This was an occasion dripping in nostalgia, an eagerly awaited reunion and a third competitive meeting between the teams since the European Cup final 46 years ago. Forest leaned into the history, too. They made a fuss of the heroes of 1979, giving them as well as their Malmö counterparts the red-carpet treatment, with 13 members of the Swedish club’s squad from then also in attendance. Both teams enjoyed dinner together before the match. Forest gave Frank Clark, Colin Barrett and co a rousing reception when they gathered on the pitch 15 minutes before kick-off and there was a typically superb tifo in the Trent End to boot.
