Champions League in the Championship? Forest's juggling act goes on

Championship game on a Saturday, Champions League match on a Tuesday?

While Nottingham Forest bask in the glory of Thursday's victory over Porto in the Europa League quarter-finals, their position in the Premier League means their short and medium-term future remains somewhat complicated.

Forest's battling 1-0 win to secure a 2-1 victory on aggregate means they will play Aston Villa in their first European semi-final for 42 years.

The winners of that all-English tie will head to Istanbul for the final on 20 May - against either Freiburg or Braga - as favourites.

And victory in Turkey will not only earn silverware but a spot in next season's Champions League.

Before that, however, they face crucial league fixtures against Burnley and Sunderland. If results in those games and elsewhere go against them, they could be in the relegation zone by the time that last-four tie with Villa arrives.

Despite being on their best unbeaten run of the season, could Forest really end up playing the likes of Bristol City and Real Madrid in the same week next season?

'Forest can survive and win the Europa League'

Winning the Europa League was a target for Forest at the start of the season, having spent around £180m on new players.

Owner Evangelos Marinakis was looking to build on last season's seventh-place finish, when Forest missed out on the Champions League on the final day.

Four managers - Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and now Vitor Pereira - later and it remains realistic despite the self-inflicted chaos this season.

Postecoglou lifted the Europa League with Tottenham last May and told his Forest players he wanted to defend the trophy after he replaced Nuno in September.

During his 39 days in charge, Forest drew their opener 2-2 at Real Betis before a damaging 3-2 home defeat by Midtjylland saw fans turn on the Australian, who was sacked after seven winless games.

Dyche fared little better, although he at least guided Forest out of the Europa League group phase, but the turbulent nature of the season means Pereira must now balance domestic and European goals into May.

"They can do both [win the Europa League and stay up]," former England international Karen Carney told TNT Sports.

"The point against Aston Villa in the Premier League, this moment tonight finding themselves in the Europa League semi-finals, Burnley on Sunday... this could be a turning point for them this week."

The priority? Avoiding relegation

Sunday's visit of Burnley remains key to Premier League safety with Forest having navigated three of their potentially season-defining games in the past seven days.

Pereira showed his hand both in his team selection and post-match comments after the first leg draw at Porto last week.

A much-changed side, including young defender Zach Abbott, Morato and Chris Wood's first appearance for six months after injury, underlined where the priorities were.

Sunday's 1-1 draw against Aston Villa, when Portuguese manager Pereira made nine changes to return to his strongest Premier League side, justified the minor gamble in Porto.

"The club said to me the priority is to keep the club in in the Premier League," said the former Wolves boss after the game in Portugal. "I agree. For the supporters, for everybody, for the club, for everybody. It's a disaster if we go to the Championship.

"We are competing with West Ham, Tottenham and Leeds and it's not easy to compete with these kind of clubs.

"If we are not in the Premier League, it will be a disaster and this is a disaster I don't want to have responsibility for.

"Of course, I want to win [the Europa League]. I had it as an assistant coach. We won the Europa League [with Porto in 2011] but I want to win it as a head coach.

"I want to keep my club in Premier League and to fight to achieve the final."

How would Forest navigate Championship & Champions League football?

Forest have six games left as they look to beat the drop - potentially helping to relegate Tottenham for the first time since 1977 in the process.

Yet, if the worst happens, how will they juggle the relentless nature of the Championship with European football?

To give an idea of how the two schedules collide, Champions League teams played six fixtures in the league phase before Christmas, while there were five midweek Championship rounds during the same period.

All five of those Championship rounds coincided with Champions League games. There is no leeway.

Europe's elite competition expanded to 36 teams from last season. Add the Carabao Cup to that fixture list and it is a packed schedule that looks almost unmanageable.

League games - with English Football League clubs playing 46 in a campaign - would likely need to be postponed and moved. It would seem an impossible task.

Second-tier teams in Europe - has it happened before?

Image caption,

Ipswich played in the Uefa Cup while competing in the second tier in 2002-03 having also played in the competition while in the Premier League the season before

Forest would not be a unique case of playing in Europe while in the second tier but they would certainly have more fixture congestion than previous teams, who faced fewer games in past versions of European competition.

In 2011, Birmingham stunned Arsenal to win the League Cup when Obafemi Martins' late goal earned the Blues their first major trophy.

Yet they were relegated from the Premier League three months later and faced the Europa League in the Championship.

The finished third in Group H, behind Club Brugge and Braga, to exit the competition despite losing just two of their six games and winning 10 points.

Their victory over Club Brugge in Belgium coming courtesy of a stoppage-time winner from current Forest striker Chris Wood.

Wigan Athletic followed two years later when they won the FA Cup and were relegated. They finished bottom of Group D which included Rubin Kazan, Maribor and Zulte Waregem.

Ipswich also reached the Uefa Cup despite being relegated from the Premier League in 2001-02 after they qualified via Uefa's Fair Play League.

All of the English teams above them in the Fair Play League had already made other European competitions.

While in the Championship they lost on penalties to Slovan Liberec in the second round, while Millwall - FA Cup runners up in 2004 - lost in the knockout stage to Ferencvaros in 2004-05.