Nottingham Forest’s Champions League dream suffered a huge blow after they were beaten 2-0 by Brentford at the City Ground.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have looked a strong bet to qualify for Europe’s premier club competition after a brilliant season and they could have moved up to third in the Premier League with a win.
But they faltered as goals from Kevin Schade and Yoane Wissa inflicted a damaging defeat, which leaves them sixth.
Coming four days after an FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester City, there is a real sense that Forest’s season is faltering at the worst possible time as this was their third league defeat in four games.
There are sure to be more twists and turns in the race for the top five in the remaining four games, but Forest have now lost control of their own destiny on what could be a pivotal night.
Brentford are four games unbeaten and they still have European ambitions of their own, sitting two points off eighth, which could be enough to secure Europa Conference League action.
While Forest suffered Wembley heartbreak on Sunday, they came up against a side who had not been in action for 12 days and that was evident as Brentford started brightly.
The Bees had an early sight of goal as Sepp van den Berg sprung the offside trap from a free-kick but he put his free header too close to Matz Sels, who palmed away to safety.
Despite their good start, they were lucky to keep 11 men on the pitch in the 21st minute as Keane Lewis-Potter survived appeals for a second yellow card when he bodychecked Ola Aina.
That sparked Forest into life as they forced Brentford back, threatening with dangerous balls into the box while Elliot Anderson had a tame effort saved by Mark Flekken.
But disaster struck on the stroke of half-time as the Bees were gifted the lead.
Aina made a mess of Nathan Collins’ long ball down the middle, allowing it to bounce and then slipping over, which saw Schade bundle home.
Forest regrouped at the interval and, with the rain lashing down, the Reds poured forward in search of a leveller.
Anthony Elanga came as close as they had all night when he raced on to Morgan Gibbs-White’s ball and cut inside, but Flekken was equal to a low shot.
It was becoming increasingly frantic as the hosts continued to probe and Chris Wood flashed a header just wide.
But Forest were killed off in the 70th minute as they were undone by another long ball.
Flekken’s goal kick was again allowed to bounce, with Wissa racing clear of Nikola Milenkovic and dinking over Sels in classy fashion.
The hosts never looked like getting back into the game as their Champions League hopes took a huge hit.
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