Forest fall to Midtjylland, Lyon rescue draw at Celta Vigo

NOTTINGHAM, England, March 12 : Nottingham Forest fell to a 1-0 home defeat to FC Midtjylland in horrible weather conditions in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday, while Olympique Lyonnais snatched a late 1-1 draw away to 10-man Celta Vigo.

Elsewhere, Robbie Keane's Ferencvaros beat Braga 2-0 and Genk had a 1-0 home win over Freiburg.

Forest had hoped to put their Premier League relegation battle to one side with a European win but for the second time this season, Danish side Midtjylland came away victorious from the City Ground, having won 3-2 in the league phase.

The hosts created plenty of chances in the opening half. Omari Hutchinson's shot from outside the area forced keeper Elias Rafn Olafsson into a diving save.

Olafsson parried away a powerful strike from Ola Aina, with Igor Jesus sending the rebound wide and the Midtjylland keeper was in action again tipping over Elliot Anderson's effort.

In torrential rain after the break, Midtjylland substitute Valdemar Byskov had two chances in quick succession, his first parried away by Forest keeper Matz Sels and from the resulting corner he smacked a shot off the crossbar.

The rain subsided, but there was plenty of water on the pitch making playing conditions difficult. Anderson did well to twist and turn his way into the box but his shot never troubled Olafsson.

Midtjylland found the winner with 10 minutes left, Ousmane Diao floating a cross into the box where Cho Gue-sung got in front of his marker Aina to guide a header past Sels into the bottom corner.

LYON LATE LEVELLER

Williot Swedberg's cross to the edge of the six-yard area tapped into the net by Javi Rueda gave Celta a 25th minute lead but the hosts went down to 10 men 10 minutes after the break