- Milenković is focussed on FA Cup action
- Serbian enjoyed productive international period
- Defender discusses defensive successes this season
Nikola Milenković enjoyed a productive international spell with Serbia but returned to the club this week raring to go ahead of Nottingham Forest’s Emirates FA Cup tie against Brighton & Hove Albion this weekend.
The Forest defender helped Serbia keep a clean sheet in their second leg 2-0 win against Austria, a result which kept the Eagles in League A of the Nations League.
After playing the full 90 minutes of the second leg for Serbia, Milenković’s attentions turned to Forest’s FA Cup quarter final this weekend.
As well as focussing on match against the Seagulls, Milenković revealed he felt good to be back amongst his teammates once more.
“It’s always good to be back, there’s a really good atmosphere and I feel very good in the group.” The Serbian international told nottinghamforest.co.uk.
“We have an amazing interconnection which is very good and important. But now we have to regroup and be ready for our next game.”
The Reds travel to the south coast with a place in the semi-finals of the FA Cup up for grabs, and the Forest defender is fully aware of the task ahead.
“We know how difficult Brighton away will be, we’ve already played there and it was very difficult but we have to be ready.
“The FA Cup is such a historic competition and it’s very important for us and our fans and we’ll do everything we can to progress.
“They play offensively so we’re going to have to keep our stability defensively. They have plenty of players with lots of quality. But we have to focus and prepare ourselves correctly.
“There will be no space for errors and we’ll have to keep our concentration.”
The 27-year-old has been a key component in the Reds keeping 12 Premier League clean sheets so far this season, but he insists the successes at the back have been down to the efforts of the whole team.
"It’s about the team, the defence starts from our forwards, the midfielders do their jobs ahead of us.
“It’s about the whole team, we need to do things in the right way and make sacrifices for each other, make that extra sprint for each other to not concede goals.
“I live for clean sheets personally but scoring goals is unique in football. Clean sheets are always number one for us."