Nottingham Forest will be looking to revive their Europa League campaign when they welcome Malmo to the City Ground on Thursday night.
The Tricky Trees have taken top honours from just one of their first four continental contests of the campaign, with that solitary success coming against Porto on matchday three.
Consequently, Forest currently find themselves languishing in 23rd position in the league phase standings, hovering just one point above the elimination places.
However, it’s been a different story on the domestic front of late, with Sean Dyche steering his side to back-to-back wins in the Premier League, the most recent of which was a stunning 3-0 success away at Liverpool.
As for Malmo, they are sitting fourth from bottom in the Europa League table after coming away empty-handed from three of their first four matches, with their solitary point coming against Dinamo Zagreb in a 1-1 draw.
Anes Mravac’s men recently brought the curtain down on their Swedish Allsvenskan campaign, coming in at a distant sixth and 26 points behind title winners Mjallby.
How the bookies view it: Forest to catch fire
Despite making a slow start to their Europa League campaign, Nottingham Forest come into this clash as heavy 2/9 favourites with bet365.
Malmo have been priced up as massive 12/1 underdogs on bet365 while a share of the City Ground spoils is also deemed unlikely at 11/2 with the same bookmaker.
Head to head: History book dormant
Nottingham Forest and Malmo will meet for just the third time on Thursday night, and the first time since contesting a UEFA Cup tie way back in 1995, with the Tricky Trees progressing courtesy of the away goals rule.
Players to watch: Morgan to make his mark?
Having hit four goals across his last six appearances for Nottingham Forest, Morgan Gibbs-White represents anytime goalscorer value on Thursday night at 6/4 with bet365.
Malmo could look to former Celtic and West Ham man Sead Haksabanovic for inspiration on Thursday night. The Montenegro international is as big as 8/1 on PaddyPower to make the net bulge at the City ground.
Predicted line-ups
Nottingham Forest are still having to contend with a lengthy injury list, with Angus Gunn, Chris Wood, Dilane Bakwa, Douglas Luiz, Ola Aina and Oleksandr Zinchenko all ruled out, while Jair Cunha, Omari Hutchinson and Taiwo Awoniyi have been not been included in the hosts’ Europa League squad.
Malmo will be without injured trio Arnor Sigurdsson, Erik Botheim and Gentian Lajqi, however Daniel Gudjohnsen will come back into contention after serving a suspension on matchday four.
Nottingham Forest: Victor; Savona, Milenkovic, Morato, Williams; Yates, Sangare; Ndoye, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Kalimuendo
Malmo: Ellborg; Larsen, Jansson, Duric, Busanello; Rosengren, Lewicki, Skogmar; Ekong, Haksabanovic, Bolin
Anything else catch the eye?
Given that Malmo have failed to score in two of their three Europa League defeats this season, siding with a Forest success alongside a clean sheet merits consideration at 10/11 with William Hill.
This selection would have been a winning one in two of Nottingham Forest’s three victories under Dyche’s watch, including their previous home game in this competition.
On a similar line of reasoning to the above, backing Forest to win 1-0, 2-0 or 3-0 also looks worthy of interest at 7/5 with PaddyPower.
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