PARIS — Aston Villa won 2-0 at Feyenoord in the Europa League on Thursday but Nottingham Forest lost at home to Danish side Midtjylland as Rangers and Celtic also suffered defeats.
Emi Buendia curled in from 20 yards and John McGinn swept in a second goal in Rotterdam as Villa made a winning return to the scene of their 1982 European Cup triumph.
Villa failed to win any of their first six games of the season but Unai Emery’s side have since reeled off three successive victories and are among seven teams on a maximum six points in the Europa League.
Marco Bizot produced some key saves in the Villa goal after being thrust into the line-up as a late replacement for Emiliano Martinez, who reportedly injured his calf.
“It has been difficult in the beginning of the season but we never lost the faith and hope,” Bizot told TNT Sports.
“We still have the spirit, even when it was not that great at the beginning. Now, hopefully, we can keep this up.”
Forest paid the price for sloppy defending at set-pieces as Midtjylland won 3-2 at the City Ground to leave new manager Ange Postecoglou still searching for his first win.
Defenders Ousmane Diao and Mads Bech scored either side of Dan Ndoye’s goal as Midtjylland punished Forest for failing to deal with a free-kick and a corner.
Valdemar Andreasen netted the decisive goal two minutes from time as Chris Wood pulled one back for Forest from the spot in stoppage time.
“Really disappointing. Just really, really poor goals we conceded in the first half,” said Postecoglou.
“Story of our last few games — key moments let us down.”
Forest are playing in Europe for the first time in 30 years and have just one point so far after a 2-2 draw away to Real Betis in their opening fixture.