On a wet and gloomy evening in northwest Portugal, the quality on the pitch matched the mood of the sparsely populated Estadio Municipal.
Morgan Gibbs-White had the first chance of the game when his curling free-kick was parried away by Lukas Hornicek, shortly before Forest captain Ryan Yates tried his luck from distance, only to see his effort fail to trouble the Braga stopper.
The hosts were struggling to get anything of note going, but they had the best chance of the first half on 37 minutes when Victor Gomez’s enticing delivery was nodded just wide by Gabri Martinez as he got to the ball ahead of Nicolo Savona.
Florian Grillitsch then headed a free-kick delivery into the side netting in stoppage time as a rather tame first half came to a close.
After that subdued first half, Braga came out of the traps much quicker in the second and had a big chance after just two minutes. It came the way of Ricardo Horta after good work down the left from Martinez, but Horta couldn’t sort his feet out and could only poke over the bar.
Sean Dyche’s men responded well and promptly won a penalty kick when Savona was sandwiched between two home defenders. However, Hornicek came up trumps again against Gibbs-White as he dived low to his left to push the ball away.
The game had well and truly exploded into life, and the opener came just a minute later as Forest were made to pay for that failure from 12 yards. Horta and Fran Navarro linked up nicely, and the former of the two’s square ball across goal was turned into his own net by the unfortunate Yates.
Both sides then came a woodwork’s width away from a goal. First, Ola Aina crashed a long-range effort off the bar before Horta’s first-time effort in the box came back off the post.
Forest were getting progressively desperate, and Dan Ndoye - who was later booked for simulation - took three bites at a cross before eventually picking out Yates, whose header was deflected over.
Try as they might, Sean Dyche’s men couldn’t breach the home goal as they ultimately fell to a second defeat in seven UEL outings.
It means they still have work to do at home against high-flying Ferencvarosi in their final league phase game next week if they are to secure knockout football, and will have to do it without Elliott Anderson, who was shown a late red card for abusive language towards the referee. Braga, meanwhile, are in pole position for a top-eight finish.
Flashcore Man of the Match: Ricardo Horta (Braga)