Substitute Igor Jesus scores late winner for Forest against Utrecht in Europa League

Igor Jesus entered in the 86th minute and still had time to score a late winner for Nottingham Forest in its 2-1 win at Utrecht in the Europa League on Thursday.

The forward claimed his fourth goal of the campaign two minutes from time after Utrecht goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas was unable to hold Dan Ndoye’s header.

Arnaud Kalimuendo gave Forest the lead early in the second half before Mike van der Hoorn equalized with a header.

Forest remains unbeaten in the second-tier competition with three wins and a draw since Sean Dyche took over as manager from Ange Postecoglou.

In other early games, Real Betis remained unbeaten after a 3-1 win over Dinamo in Zagreb.

Young Boys wasted a penalty but still earned a 1-0 win over Lille, which played an hour with 10 men after Ayyoub Bouaddi’s red card.

Stuttgart recovered from a 5-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga by routing Maccabi Tel Aviv 4-1.

Midtjylland continues to impress

Danish team Midtjylland provisionally went top of the Europa League with 15 points after six games with a 1-0 victory over Genk. Cho Gue-sung netted for the hosts.

Lyon hosted Dutch newcomer Go Ahead Eagles and Aston Villa visted Basel later Thursday.

After eight games, the top eight in the 36-team table go directly to the round of 16 in March.

Teams placed ninth to 24th advance to the knockout playoffs in February.

No win for Rangers, no point for Nice

Barnabás Varga headed in the winning goal to complete a 2-1 comeback victory for Ferencváros over Scottish side Rangers and remained unbeaten with four wins and two draws.

Forward Bojan Miovski’s acrobatic volley gave Rangers a 1-0 lead before Bence Ötvös equalized in first-half stoppage time for the hosts who are coached by former Celtic player Robbie Keane.

Rangers remains without a win in the league phase.

Nice remains the only Europa League team without a point after a 1-0 home defeat to Braga with Pau Victor scoring. It was the eighth straight loss for Nice across all competitions.

High-flying Villa

After a slow start to the season, Villa bounced back and is third in the Premier League, including a 2-1 victory over leader Arsenal on Saturday.

“The most important thing is how we are building the team, how we are achieving in our process during each competition our stronger mentality in everything,” manager Unai Emery said ahead of the match at St. Jakob-Park in Basel. Emery has won the Europa League trophy four times during stints in charge of Sevilla and Villarreal.

Also, Celtic and Roma meet later in Glasgow.

In the third-tier Conference League, Crystal Palace played at Shelbourne in Dublin, and Fiorentina hosted Dynamo Kyiv.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer