Nottingham Forest Thrashes Fenerbahce 3-0: Vitor Pereira's Dream Debut with Goals from Murillo, Igor Jesus, and Gibbs-White

THIS was the ultimate new manager bounce.

And on this evidence are far too good to be relegated from the Premier League.

Nottingham Forest have one foot in the Europe League last 16Credit: Getty Morgan Gibbs-White looked back to hisbestCredit: Getty

Forest kickstarted the Vitor Pereira’s era in style, claiming their best European away win since the Brian Clough era.

Pereira is no Clough but he is a specialist in honeymoon periods and short-term revivals. He inflicted Fenerbahce’s heaviest home defeat in three years.

The Portuguese dragged Wolves out of the scrap last season before being sacked in September after losing all of his best players led to poor form.

, Igor Jesus and looked back to their best as Forest went three up in under an hour.

All three players would surely join out of the door if Forest were to be relegated.

And it all happened at Pereira’s old stomping ground, where he spent two spells.

Pereira added Forest to his mountain list of 15 clubs and will host former club in the second-leg play-off THREE goals up.

The Midlands club might look too talented to go down, but a chaotic season of revolving-door managers and changing instructions every three months previously only ended one way.

But Forest saved their best all-round performance for their FOURTH manager of the season.

Pereira picked his strongest team despite hosting in two days’ time.

, on his first European start, formed a dynamic trio with Jesus and Gibbs-White.

Gibbs-White, who has played his way out of the squad this season amid the turmoil, showed shadows of his former self too.

All three pressed tirelessly and looked like men possessed.

Midfield general Anderson kept Forest in the Turkish side’s half before took matters into his own hands with 20 minutes gone.

The Brazilian returned for Pereira’s first game after missing Sean Dyche’s final one through injury.

The defender charged from the half-way line and unleashed a low left-footed shot, which nicked a deflection past former City star .

Murillo was at the centre of the action again when he survived a lengthy check to confirm his arm was in a natural position from a Talisca shot.

Pereira’s rival on the touchline Domenico Tedesco was booked for his protests, but Murillo would have had to remove his arm out of its socket to avoid the ball smacking off his forearm.

Doubling the lead seemed just a matter of time, and on 43 minutes, Jesus latched onto a back post header from Gibbs-White’s near-post flick on Anderson’s corner.

Forest battered Spurs under Dyche in January, but this was the English side’s best showing in Europe in their first knockout tie in 30 years.

And soon Pereira was in dreamland.

Hutchinson lifted the ball over for Jesus, who squared it for Gibbs-White to tap home.

The beating drum of Fenerbahce’s hostile cauldron had been silenced long before that. Ibrahim Sangare was colossal in the midfield too.

had not conceded two goals at home in over a year and fielded a star-studded line-up of former Premier League stars.

French World Cup winner N’Golo Kante, Pereira’s former Wolves right-back Nelson Semedo and ex-Arsenal midfielder Mattéo Guendouzi joined two-time winner Asensio.

And Forest wanted a fourth. The team in red had 20 attempts and dominated possession.

Pereira won his first two games in charge of Wolves to kick start a season-saving run.

He will match that with a win over Arne Slot’s champions at the City Ground on Sunday.