Nottingham Forest and Vitória de Guimarães met behind closed doors on Sunday, July 26, in a pre-season friendly during Forest’s training camp in Portugal. The match came as Oliver Glasner oversaw his third pre-season game since taking charge of Nottingham Forest.
That is why the fixture drew attention. Forest entered unbeaten and without conceding in its first two summer matches, while Vitória arrived on a four-match winning streak after scoring 13 goals. For a mid-summer game with no crowd inside the ground, the edge came from the form on both sides and from the fact that this was one of the clearest tests either club had faced so far.
Forest had already beaten Notts County 2-0 and Blackburn Rovers 3-0, a start that suggested Glasner’s side had settled quickly in pre-season. Vitória had matched that momentum in its own run, with victories over Felgueiras, Penafiel, Académica and Al-Ahli. Tiago Margarido’s side had also built its campaign around clean, direct results, so Sunday’s meeting was less a showcase and more a checkpoint for two clubs still shaping their rhythms before the season begins.
The match also carried a long list of absences. Murillo, Ola Aina, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Nicolò Savona were unavailable for Nottingham Forest because of fitness issues, while Telmo Arcanjo and Gui were ruled out for Vitória de Guimarães. That left both managers with fewer options than they would normally want in a match designed to test sharpness and structure rather than chase a public result.
With the game played behind closed doors, official streaming was the only way to watch it. Supporters in the United Kingdom and Ireland could follow on Forest TV, viewers in Portugal could use Sport TV’s streaming platform, and supporters in the United States and Canada could buy an international match pass through Forest TV. Fans across Australia, Oceania, Asia and Africa could also stream it through Forest TV, with kickoff set for 1:00 p.m. BST, 2:00 p.m. CEST, 8:00 a.m. EDT, 5:00 a.m. PDT and 10:00 p.m. AEST.
What remains after the final whistle is the result, which was not included in the available details. But the shape of the day is already clear: Forest are using Portugal to tighten their tactical work ahead of the Premier League season, and Vitória are arriving with enough scoring form to make sure this friendly looked like a meaningful rehearsal rather than a quiet workout.
