Europa League preview: Nottingham Forest has improved after the coaching change, Graz Storm have not won in the past four games
At 01:45 a.m. on November 7, 2025, Beijing time, a key matchup will be held in the fourth round of the Europa League. The Austrian team Graz Storm will face the Premier League team Nottingham Forest at the Merkur Arena, the home team's stadium.
This is a positional battle related to the qualifying situation. Sturm Graz currently has 3 points and Nottingham Forest has 4 points. There is only one point difference between the two sides. For Sturm Graz, they need to make every effort to grab points and enter the play-offs in order to retain their promotion hopes; and if Nottingham Forest wins, they are expected to reach the top eight.
Graz Sturm performed extremely well in the home team's games, maintaining a clean win in the past 4 home games in the European competition. In the first game of this season's Europa League, they overturned the Scottish Premiership powerhouse Glasgow Rangers at the home team's stadium. The team's recent competitive form has been poor. Except for the elimination of low-level teams in the Austrian Cup in the last four main matches, they have lost all the other three games. There are obvious loopholes on the defensive end. In the past five games, the total number of goals conceded was as high as 11, and the average number of goals conceded per game reached 2.2. The offensive end is their major advantage. They have scored consecutively in the past 5 games, averaging 1.6 goals per game.
Nottingham Forest's performance has picked up after new coach Sean Dyche took office. In Dyche's first game as coach, he led the team to defeat Porto, the previously unbeaten Portuguese Super League team, 2-0 in the Europa League. Not only did the team win its first European victory in 30 years, it also ended the embarrassing record of 10 consecutive games without a win in all competitions. Then they tied with the powerful Manchester United 2-2 in the Premier League, showing great resilience. In the Premier League, the team is still stuck in the relegation zone with a nine-game winless streak. In addition, their away team performance is struggling, and they have not won in seven recent away games. Dyche has injected stronger strategic discipline into the team, emphasizing "effective" football, with players fighting more actively and guarding positions more compactly.
Chukwani, the core midfielder of Graz Storm, was suspended for this game because he was red-blooded in the last round of the Europa League. His absence has a major impact on the team's midfield transition between offense and defense. The core team rotation forward Beganovic was absent due to injury, and the forward firepower was affected.
Nottingham Forest is experiencing a serious wave of injuries, mainly concentrated in the defense and forwards. Full-backs Aina and Zinchenko are both absent due to injuries. Wood, the fifth position, is out with a knee injury, and rotational wing forward Bakwa is also exempt from the game due to injury.
This is the first time the two teams have met since the UEFA Cup quarter-finals in March 1984, when Nottingham Forest advanced 2-1 with a total score of two legs. Sturm Graz's historical record against English teams is not ideal, with only 1 win, 1 draw and 6 losses in the first eight encounters. A key point in common is that the two teams have scored and lost goals in the first half of the last 10 games, and the game is likely to enter a state of high-speed confrontation at the beginning of the game.
