Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis targets Europa League success

Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis hopes his club can “go all the way” in the Europa League this season.

Marinakis reflected on a promise fulfilled after attending the Europa League draw in Monaco on Friday, having said he would deliver both Premier League and European football when he bought the club in 2017.

The Greek businessman said: “Everyone is happy, everyone is proud. We promised to bring Nottingham Forest back to where it belongs, which was the Premier League and the European competitions.

“Everyone is looking forward to this journey and all our supporters to watch the matches to the City Ground and travel around Europe with the team.

“We hope that we can go all the way because we’re here to compete and to win trophies.

“That is the aspiration and it is very much something linked to the club because we have won the European Cup twice.”

Forest will face Malmo in a repeat of their 1979 European Cup final triumph during their Europa League campaign.

Trevor Francis headed the only goal in Munich to seal Forest’s famous win and they successfully defended their European crown the following season by beating Hamburg.

Forest, promoted to the Europa League due to Crystal Palace’s demotion, having qualified for the Conference League last season, will play the Swedish team at the City Ground.

They also face home ties against Porto, Ferencvaros and Midtjylland, with away trips to Real Betis, Braga, Sturm Graz and Utrecht awaiting.

“History repeats. We played Malmo in the 1979 final, so it will be a nice occasion,” Marinakis said.

“We’ll invite all our legends to be there and the same applies for Malmo. We want them to come to the City Ground and have a great occasion.

“We have a very good squad. You saw last season how they competed and they’re very much looking forward to playing in Europe this season.

“We have some young, ambitious players and we’ll look to compete, work hard and enjoy our victories.”

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, who followed up their 3-1 home opening-day win against Brentford with a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace last week, return to the City Ground to face winless West Ham, who are chasing their first points of the season.

Elliot Anderson received his first senior England call-up on Friday for the World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia, alongside Forest team-mate Morgan Gibbs-White, and Nuno said “the boy is buzzing”.

“For him and for Morgan it is a special and proud moment for us all,” The Portuguese boss said.

“I have been checking – since 1996 – we didn’t have two players in the England squad.

“It says a lot about them and improvement of the team. These visual recognitions are only possible if the team competes well.”