Nottingham Forest of England defender, Ola Aina is refusing to rule his team out of contention for a ticket into next season’s UEFA Champions League, as he believes they have what it takes to win their remaining three matches of the current campaign.
Sports247 checks revealed that Forest will host Leicester City this Sunday and then play away to West Ham United on May 18th, after which they will return home to welcome fellow-contenders Chelsea.
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Heading into all three fixtures to wrap up the season, Ola is out with a nagging injury, and his team has been hit with a drastic dip in form, which saw them drop from third spot in the English Premier League table to sixth on the log.
However, while their current standing appears precarious, as they lie sixth on 61 points, while Chelsea are fifth with 63 and Aston Villa look threatening in seventh with 60, Aina insists his team will pick one of the UCL tickets come May 25th.
“This is football. Sometimes you don’t start early. You just have to move on and try your best,” said the former Chelsea, Hull City and Fulham of England defender, as well as ex-Torino of Italy full back.
“We’re on a speedbump, but the race continues, and we try to get three points from every game. You can’t get that all the time, but we have to keep trying. We’ll try to pick the three points as we go on.”
Dramatically, Nottingham Forest still have multiple opportunities of qualifying for at least one of three European club competitions next season.
The 1979 and 1980 European Cup champions are currently on the slot for the UEFA Europa League, but could step up to the Champions League if they beat Chelsea at home in their last match of the season.
A worse case scenario could see them drop to the UEFA Conference League if Aston Villa upstage them in the course of the season’s remaining games.
