Nervy Nottingham Forest edged past Fenerbahce to reach the last 16 of the Europa League.

Kerem Akturkoglu’s double, including a second-half penalty, put the hosts in danger of blowing their 3-0 first-leg lead.

Callum Hudson-Odoi’s strike eased fears of complete collapse as Vitor Pereira’s side progressed despite a sloppy and tentative performance.

They will face either FC Midtjylland, who beat them in October to spark Ange Postecoglou’s downfall, or Real Betis – against whom Forest drew 2-2 in Spain during the league phase.

“We move forward – I’m happy, we played under pressure. It was like a thriller – with suspense,” said Pereira, who made six changes following Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Liverpool, with their next Premier League game at Brighton in mind.

“We were suffering a bit but we are in the moment of the season where we need to think not about one game but about the next game.

“I decided to take this risk [of six changes] because I need to think about the Brighton game [on Sunday], it is very important for us. We need to go there with fuel and energy. My decisions were not just about this game.

“We have ambition in the Europa League, it is to move forward to the next stage. We are not comfortable in the table in the Premier League and this is very important for us, to get the points to avoid a difficult situation.”

Thursday’s match was far from straightforward after Forest were caught on the break on 22 minutes, allowing Akturkoglu to fire in.

That put the City Ground on edge and, although Elliot Anderson went close when he shot wide, the hosts struggled to recover.

Pereira made four changes at the break, including withdrawing the ineffective James McAtee and Ryan Yates, but Jair Cunha conceded a penalty 25 seconds after the restart when he tripped Akturkoglu.

The striker converted the spot-kick to raise the anxiety levels, until Hudson-Odoi – one of the half-time substitutes – made it 4-2 on aggregate with a low finish 22 minutes from the end.

Omari Hutchinson could have made it 2-2 on the night but was denied by Tarik Cetin after running clean through late on.

“We are proud of the way we played, with personality and belief,” said Fenerbahce coach Domenico Tedesco.

“At home, we lost the qualification, they changed the coach a few days before which changes things, they overperformed in our stadium, we underperformed.

“We have to accept we are out of the competition but at least with our heads up.”