'How's he saved that?!' - Morgan Gibbs-White in awe over Emi Martinez's 'great' stop in Nottingham Forest's narrow Europa League win over Aston Villa

Gibbs-White was left in awe of a spectacular save from Martinez during Nottingham Forest’s narrow 1-0 win over Aston Villa in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final.

The Argentine goalkeeper produced one of the standout moments of the match at the City Ground when he denied Igor Jesus with a remarkable reflex stop during the first half. Despite the heroics from Martinez, Forest eventually claimed victory thanks to Chris Wood’s second-half penalty after a VAR review for handball against Lucas Digne. The result gives Forest a slender advantage heading into the return leg, with the Midlands rivals set to meet again at Villa Park for a place in the final.

After the match, Gibbs-White admitted he could hardly believe the Villa goalkeeper had kept the effort out. Reflecting on the moment, the England international praised Martinez’s reaction and shot-stopping ability after the Argentina No.1 produced what many considered the save of the night.

"How's he saved that, by the way?" he told TNT Sports. "How's he saved that? He did one similar last year. I was screaming at Igor going 'how have you not scored that?' But it's all credit to the goalkeeper it's a great save."

However, Gibbs-White also heaped praise on his head coach, Vitor Pereira. The 26-year-old emphasized that Forest's success in reaching the Europa League semi-finals was due to the manager's ideas and tactics.

"He's been a massive part of the success that we've recently had in terms of his ideas, his tactics," he added. "The way he believes football should be with passion, aggression and fight. We've been showing that in our performances. The atmosphere today was incredible. I think the boys put on an incredible performance."

"The control we had in the game. Even when they had the ball, we felt we had control. We weren't comfortable because obviously they have incredible talent and threat but with the ball we were calm, confident, had a couple of chances where we could have gone 1-0 up before."

The match marked a significant occasion for both clubs, with Nottingham Forest chasing their first major European final since the 1980s while Aston Villa aim to lift their first continental trophy in decades.

In the second leg, Villa will need to overturn the one-goal deficit if they are to reach the Europa League final, while Forest will look to defend their advantage and continue an impressive European campaign that has already seen them eliminate several strong opponents on the road to the last four.

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