Story by[]Emily Salley - BBC Sport journalistMon, March 2, 2026 at 8:27 AM UTC·1 min readVitor Pereira blamed a lack of preparation time for Nottingham Forest's defeat at Brighton. Forest lost 2-1 at home to Fenerbahce in the Europa League on Thursday, although they progressed to the last 16 thanks to their 3-0 win in the first leg. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt means that Forest, who have been drawn against Danish side Midtjylland, will end up playing six games in the first 22 days of March. Speaking to Sky Sports, Pereira said: "The tiredness is not only physical, it's mental too. You need to recover."But this is what we have. You cannot use the Europa League as an excuse because we are there and we are there competing."Before I accepted the job, I knew that we have ambitions to keep our targets in both competitions."Forest are a long way from the joys of last season, when they finished seventh and secured a place in Europe for the first time since 1996. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe club have won just seven of their 28 league games this term and they have struggled without last season's top scorer Chris Wood, who has been out since October with knee injury. Only bottom side Wolves (15) have failed to score in more Premier League games this season than Forest (13). Read more about Forest and the Premier League relegation battle.