Nottingham Forest edge past Midtjylland on penalties, Celta and Freiburg reach quarters

HERNING, Denmark, March 19 : Nottingham Forest fought back from a first leg deficit to reach the Europa League quarter-finals with a 3-0 penalty shootout win over Midtjylland after the teams finished 2-2 on aggregate following extra time on Thursday, while Celta Vigo eliminated Olympique Lyonnais with a 3-1 aggregate win.

Elsewhere, Freiburg made light work of Genk, securing a 5-1 home win to progress 5-2 on aggregate.

After Midtjylland secured a 1-0 first-leg victory at a rain-soaked City Ground through Cho Gue-sung’s late header, Forest made sure their campaign would not end in the round of 16 as goals from Nicolas Dominguez and Ryan Yates sealed them a 2-1 win on Thursday to take the match into penalties.

Forest broke through four minutes before the break as Dominguez’s looping header sailed over Midtjylland goalkeeper Elias Rafn Olafsson and into the bottom corner.

Yates doubled the lead in the 52nd minute, curling a left-footed strike into the corner from the edge of the penalty area.

Midtjylland struck back in the 69th minute as Martin Erlic pounced on a loose ball to fire a clinical strike, levelling the tie on aggregate. A scoreless period of extra time followed, sending the match to a decisive penalty shootout.

In the shootout, while Midtjylland missed all three of their spot-kicks, Morgan Gibbs-White, Ibrahim Sangare and Neco Williams all fired into the net to lead Forest into the quarter-finals.

Lyon defender Moussa Niakhate was sent off in the opening stages for a late tackle on Celta's Javi Rueda, leaving the hosts a man down.

Despite the numerical advantage, Celta struggled to find a breakthrough before the interval, with both sides squandering clear chances in a scoreless first half.

Celta broke the deadlock in