Nottingham Forest’s hopes of reaching the Champions League took a big hit after a 2-0 defeat to Brentford at the City Ground.
Nuno Espirito Santo's team seemed likely to qualify for the prestigious European club competition after a strong season and a win could have seen them climb to third place in the Premier League.
However, they stumbled as Kevin Schade and Yoane Wissa scored to deal a significant blow, dropping Forest to sixth place.
Following their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City just four days earlier, it appears that Forest's season is hitting a rough patch at a critical moment, with this being their third league defeat in four matches.
With four games remaining, the race for the top five is sure to have more twists and turns, but Forest have now lost control of their fate on what could prove to be a crucial night.
Brentford, unbeaten in four games, are still in the running for European qualification themselves, sitting two points behind eighth place, which could earn them a spot in the Europa Conference League.
Despite Forest's disappointment at Wembley on Sunday, they faced a Brentford side that had not played for 12 days, and that freshness was evident as the Bees started brightly.
Brentford had an early chance to score when Sepp van den Berg broke the offside trap from a free-kick, but his header was saved by Matz Sels.
Although Brentford had a good start, they were fortunate not to go down to ten men in the 21st minute when Keane Lewis-Potter escaped a second yellow card for a challenge on Ola Aina.
This incident seemed to ignite Forest as they pushed Brentford back, creating opportunities with dangerous crosses into the box and a shot from Elliot Anderson that was easily saved by Mark Flekken.
Unfortunately for Forest, disaster struck just before half-time as Brentford took the lead through a mistake by Aina, which led to Schade's goal.
Forest regrouped at half-time and launched attacks in search of an equalizer amidst heavy rain.
Anthony Elanga had a good chance to score when he received a pass from Morgan Gibbs-White, but his shot was saved by Flekken.
The game became increasingly intense as Forest pressed forward, with Chris Wood narrowly missing a header.
Forest's hopes were dashed in the 70th minute as Wissa scored from another long ball, sealing the victory for Brentford.
The hosts struggled to mount a comeback and saw their Champions League aspirations diminish significantly.