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On the night Chris Wood returned from six months on the sidelines, a comical own goal by the Porto defender Martim Fernandes earned Nottingham Forest a draw and feeling optimistic of advancing to the Europa League semi-finals.

The New Zealand striker was withdrawn as anticipated at the interval, Vitor Pereira mindful of the bigger picture, with Sunday’s home match with Aston Villa the first of seven remaining matches to preserve their Premier League status.

This all remains a balancing act for Pereira, back here in the red corner for the first time since guiding Porto to successive league titles.

Forest arrived in northern Portugal empowered by the fact that Wood was among their squad. Three weeks ago he travelled with the Forest team to north London for their 3-0 triumph at Tottenham, their previous match, but this was a case of on-pitch business.

Pereira handed Wood a starting berth, his first appearance for 173 days. In that time he has undergone knee surgery, missed 34 matches and Forest have dispensed with two managers.

All the while Wood remains the last Forest striker to score at the City Ground and the sight of his name on the team sheet was a major plus.

Pereira named nine changes from the win at Spurs, with Murillo and Morgan Gibbs-White the only players to keep their spots in the XI. By now Forest are used to juggling the Premier League with European competition but multiple changes appeared to impact them negatively in the opening stages.

Sekou Fofana released Terem Moffi in on Stefan Ortega’s goal inside 45 seconds and the Forest goalkeeper made two smart saves in quick succession. Borja Sainz should have scored on seven minutes but his effort was tame, allowing Ortega a comfortable stop. Murillo then escaped punishment for wrestling with Moffi’s shirt on the perimeter of the box with both hands.

Forest began sloppily and were grappling with their opponents. A Porto goal had been coming and William Gomes converted Gabriel Veiga’s teasing diagonal ball into the box with 11 minutes on the clock. Moffi slid into the six-yard box but while he could not connect Gomes was on hand at the back post to side-foot home after eluding his marker, Dan Ndoye. Cue the funk of the goal music and a racket from the stands.

Porto appeared in total control but a couple of minutes later Fernandes gifted Forest a bizarre equaliser, beating Diogo Costa with a blind back pass. Porto shifted the ball across defence from left to right.

Jan Bednarek nudged a pass into Thiago Silva and then the Brazilian moved it on to Fernandes at right-back. Fernandes sent a clunky first-time pass back towards his own goal, catching a stunned Costa cold.

The ball bounced outside the box and then skidded into the corner at the near post. Fernandes placed his hands on his head long before the ball went in and he was withdrawn on 19 minutes, though seemingly through injury after colliding with Ndoye.

Pereira maintained it would be foolish to demand too much too soon from Wood and that doing so would have consequences. So it was no surprise Wood was replaced by Igor Jesus at the interval, part of a double substitution with Nikola Milenkovic introduced in place of Murillo.

The manner of Fernandes’s freakish own goal hampered the hosts and they struggled to attack with quite the same vigour until after the interval when William Gomes dragged an early shot wide of a post.

Forest offered little attacking threat and generally seemed quite happy for the game to peter out. Nothing exemplified their generally blunt display than Wood having just 11 touches in the first half, only one of those in the opposition box. Porto, meanwhile, sought to dial up the pressure and Francesco Farioli replenished his attack with the arrivals of Deniz Gul, Pepe and Victor Froholdt.

But it was Omari Hutchinson, a Forest sub, who swung in a cross that led to a rare Forest chance that culminated in Igor Jesus having a goal disallowed. Igor Jesus beat Costa to the punch but his attempt to latch on to the ball ended with Costa in a heap requiring treatment and the video assistant referee Daniele Chiffi penalising the Brazilian striker for handball. There was no apparent foul and the Italian referee, Marco Guida, confirmed the goal was ruled out for handball.

Porto had chances to snatch victory but Ortega saved well from Gomes and then Deniz Gul curled wide after neat interplay with Froholdt. Perhaps the best opening fell to Froholdt, who after collecting a Pepe backheel, drilled a low shot inches wide.