Sunderland vs Nottingham Forest Betting Preview, Tips & Odds — 24 April 2026

Relegation Scrap Meets Europa Dream

Friday night under the lights at the Stadium of Light, and this one carries genuine weight. Sunderland are back in the Premier League and hosting a Nottingham Forest side scrapping for survival while simultaneously chasing a Europa League semi-final. Vítor Pereira has a squad being pulled in two directions, and the cracks are starting to show in the worst possible way.

Forest sit 16th with 36 points and a goal difference of -9. Their away record tells the story: five wins, three draws, eight defeats on the road this season. They are not a team you back with confidence when they leave the City Ground. At the Stadium of Light on a Friday night, with a packed crowd and a newly promoted side desperate to prove their top-flight credentials, this is far from a comfortable trip.

Forest's Injury Crisis is the Real Story

The headline coming into this one is the injury situation at Nottingham Forest, and it is serious. Multiple reports in the last 48 hours confirm a major blow to a key player, described by Pereira himself as a "bad injury," with that player now set to miss the rest of the season. That covers both the relegation run-in and the Europa League semi-final. Taiwo Awoniyi, Nicolás Domínguez and Olamide Aina are all listed as missing the fixture. That is depth across the squad stripped away at the worst possible moment.

Morgan Gibbs-White is their beating heart this season with 12 goals and 2 assists in 33 appearances, and he remains their most dangerous player. But Forest need players around him, and right now those bodies are disappearing. Callum Hudson-Odoi has chipped in with 3 goals and 4 assists in 30 appearances, and Igor Jesus has added 4 goals across the campaign, but the squad is looking stretched and the legs will be tired after grinding through the Porto quarter-final.

Forest's Form vs Sunderland's Unknown

Forest's last five matches are genuinely decent on paper: a 4-1 home win over Burnley, the 1-0 home leg win over Porto, a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa, a 1-1 draw away at Porto in the first leg, and a 3-0 away win at Tottenham. Ten goals scored, three conceded across those five. The Porto quarter-final was seen off professionally, with Forest winning 2-1 on aggregate after beating them 1-0 at home on 16 April following the 1-1 draw away on 9 April.

The problem? That Tottenham result was away from home and looks like a high watermark. The Villa draw shows they can be pegged back, and the away form across the season remains their obvious weakness. Away: W5 D3 L8. Over a full campaign, they have dropped points on the road far more often than they have taken them.

Sunderland's form data is limited here, but Régis Le Bris has built a side capable of competing in this division. Promoted sides in their first season can be unpredictable, but home form at the Stadium of Light has historically been where newly promoted clubs find their footing. The crowd will be up for this one.

The Betting Angle

The odds have Forest marginally favourited at 2.78 with Sunderland at 2.85, which is essentially a coin flip with a draw priced at 3.39. Given everything pointing away from a comfortable Forest night, those Sunderland odds represent genuine value. A depleted, fatigued away side with a poor away record against a home team with everything to play for in front of their own crowd? The bookmakers have not moved far enough on this.

Under 2.5 goals at 1.81 is also worth considering. Forest have the personnel to score, but they are not free-flowing on the road, and a tight, edgy Friday night fixture feels more likely to finish 1-0 or 1-1 than it does to open up. But the main play here is Sunderland getting the win.