We look ahead to Wednesday’s UEFA Europa League clash at Estadio La Cartuja de Sevilla with our Real Betis vs Nottingham Forest prediction and preview.
Real Betis vs Nottingham Forest: The Key Stats
The Opta supercomputer finds it difficult to split the teams, with Nottingham Forest given a slight edge (38.2%). Ange Postecoglou won the UEFA Europa League last season as Tottenham boss – the Australian has a 67% win rate in the competition. This is Forest’s first game in a major European competition since losing 5-1 to Bayern Munich in March 1996 in a UEFA Cup quarter-final.Nottingham Forest are back in Europe.
Over 29 years since their last match in a major European competition, Forest start their UEFA Europa League campaign with a trip to southern Spain, with Real Betis their hosts.
Betis reached the final of the UEFA Conference League last season, before going down 4-1 to a Cole Palmer-inspired Chelsea, and that is the competition Forest were set to feature in following their seventh-place finish in the Premier League last term.
Instead, Forest are into UEFA’s second-tier club competition after Crystal Palace – the FA Cup winners – were demoted to the Conference League by European football’s governing body due to multi-club ownership regulations.
Even if at one stage last term a top-five finish in the Premier League seemed likely, qualifying for any form of continental tournament was a huge achievement for Forest, who were under the guidance of Nuno Espírito Santo. In the space of a season, they had gone from relegation contenders to being back in Europe for the first time since the 1990s.
Forest’s gap of 10,781 days between games in a major European competition is the longest by an English club since Wolves went 14,232 days without one between 1980 and 2019. Nuno got them back into Europe, too.
Yet Nuno will not be the man on the touchline when Forest kick off their Europa League campaign in Seville on Wednesday. He was dismissed earlier in September following a reported rift with the club’s leadership, and Ange Postecoglou is now in place.
Postecoglou, of course, has pedigree in the Europa League.
He may have overseen Tottenham’s worst Premier League finish ever, but he also masterminded a European triumph, with Spurs edging out Manchester United 1-0 in a low-quality Europa League final in May, a scruffy goal from ex-Forest man Brennan Johnson proving decisive.
That victory was not enough for Postecoglou to keep his job despite the former Celtic boss delivering on his promise of “always” winning a trophy during his second season at a club.
Postecoglou has a 67%-win ratio in the competition (P15 W10), the third best behind Diego Simeone (81%, P26 W21) and Julen Lopetegui (69%, P16 W11) among managers with 15+ games.
And although he has been typically bullish during his Forest media briefings, Postecoglou will no doubt be desperate to make that record P16 W11.
His start at Forest has hardly been convincing. A 3-0 away defeat to Arsenal was followed by a capitulation in the EFL Cup against Swansea City. Forest led 2-0 but ended up losing 3-2, conceding twice in stoppage time. A far cry from the resolute defending they became known for under Nuno.
Forest gave away a lead again on Saturday, as they drew 1-1 with Burnley at Turf Moor. Postecoglou was confident his team are already settling into his style of play, but a win needs to arrive sooner rather than later.
Indeed, Postecoglou is winless in his last nine Premier League games (D2 L7), his longest run without a league win as a top-flight manager across spells in Australia, Japan, Scotland and England. And Nuno was a hugely popular figure among the Forest fanbase, so it may not take long for the situation to turn sour.
Betis, though, will be no pushovers.
They have lost just one of their last 18 major European home games in the group/league phase (W11 D6), though it was their last home Europa League group game back in December 2023 against Rangers. It’s also worth noting that they aren’t currently playing at their own stadium, the Benito Villamarín, which is being redeveloped.
Similarly, Manuel Pellegrini’s team, who finished sixth in La Liga, hardly had the toughest of draws through the 2024-25 Conference League knockout stage, albeit they did have to navigate a play-off game to reach the round of 16.
They also had to overcome Fiorentina – two-time Conference League finalists – in the semis. They won 4-3 on aggregate, with Antony, then on loan from Manchester United, scoring twice.
Antony has since joined on a permanent transfer. Between signing for Betis on loan on January 25 and the end of last season, the Brazilian contributed to 14 goals in all competitions (nine goals, five assists). That is as many goal involvements as Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski managed in the same period, with only six La Liga players managing a greater total. Teammate Isco (20 – 10 goals, 10 assists) was among those.
Having only signed late in the transfer window, Antony is not fully up to speed and is yet to score or assist across his two appearances for Betis this term.
With Isco out for a while due to a broken leg, Giovani Lo Celso has stepped up in Betis’ midfield, laying on two assists, scoring once and leading Betis for chances created (15) this season.
Betis, who have taken nine points from the 15 on offer in La Liga this term, sit sixth in Spain’s top flight and are the division’s joint-third highest scorers (nine goals) behind Barcelona (16), Real Madrid (10) and Villarreal (10). Only those three teams can top Betis’ 9.1 expected goals (xG), too.
So, Forest’s defence may need to be at its best to keep out a Betis team who can offer plenty of threat.
Forest kept 13 top-flight clean sheets last season, which trailed only Liverpool (14). On the flip side, they are one of just four Premier League sides yet to keep at least one shutout this term, while only Brentford (10), Wolves (12) and West Ham (13) have conceded more goals than them (nine), who have the fifth-highest xGA (7.7) in the division.
Postecoglou’s Spurs conceded 64.3 xGA last season in the league, the worst figure of any team not to be relegated, so it is fair to say he is not renowned for instilling defensive solidity.
Forest, then, may prioritise being impactful in attack, and they have plenty of quality options at their disposal.
Club-record signing Omari Hutchinson was left out of Forest’s Europa League squad by Nuno, but fellow wing additions Dilane Bakwa and Dan Ndoye, who has two goal involvements in the Premier League already, did make the cut.
Elliot Anderson, Callum Hudson-Odoi (seven each) and Morgan Gibbs-White (six) are Forest’s leading chance creators in the league this term and will likely be tasked with providing the firepower for Chris Wood up top, though Arnaud Kalimuendo is waiting in the wings to try to make his mark.
Real Betis vs Nottingham Forest Head-to-Head
In major European competition, Forest’s only previous meeting with a Spanish club was in the Fairs Cup first round in 1961-62, losing 7-1 on aggregate to Valencia.
This will be the first ever meeting between Betis and Forest – the Spanish side have lost seven of nine previous European games against English teams (W1 D1), losing most recently in the 2025 UEFA Conference League final to Chelsea.
Real Betis vs Nottingham Forest Prediction
The Opta supercomputer has run 10,000 data-led simulations, and it is struggling to split these teams.
Forest are made ever-so-slight favourites with a 38.2% win probability. Betis’ likelihood of victory comes in at 35.7%, while there is a healthy 26.1% chance of a draw.
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 10,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Wednesday night in Seville, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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Real Betis vs Nottingham Forest Prediction: Postecoglou Seeks First Win Upon Europa League Return Opta Analyst.
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