When the Nottingham Forest team flew back to London from Lisbon, the players did not smile. It had been a defeat in the away game, which was quite different from the away game loss to Villarreal CF. No matter what, they had known that losing to Villarreal would not stop the team from breaking out of the group stage. Therefore, after one night, the players had quickly recovered from their anger and chatted and laughed on the plane.
It was different this time.
Losing to Sporting Lisbon meant that they had completely lost the UEFA Europa League that season. There was no hope for a championship. As a result, no one could laugh on the plane.
