Nottingham Forest 1-0 Manchester City

Hudson-Odoi 83'

Woke up this morning with mixed emotions. One side of me though “if we can get a win European football is definitely on”. The other side was thinking “if we lose we drop down to 4^th and potentially even 5^th  after the game week, maybe Champions League isn’t ours”. But once I got to the City Ground, the sun shining, red shirts out and felt the atmosphere building, flashbacks of that Liverpool win came to mind, and I felt the three points were coming our way.

Man City are one of three teams that Forest haven’t beaten since their return to the top flight. In our last three Premier League meetings against City, they have won 7-0 on aggregate. However, they have never won four in a row against the Reds in the top flight. Forest did manage to take a point off the Champions 2 seasons ago when Chris Wood scored an 84^th minute equaliser to send the City Ground wild. In the last game between both sides, City came out 3-0 winners at the Etihad. After this defeat, Forest went 9 games unbeaten in all competitions, whilst that was the Blues’ only win in 10 games. With the season nearing its closing stages, this was a huge game in the Champions League qualifying race.

Before kick-off, we were treated to another brilliant Forza Garibaldi display, representing all our squad’s nationalities. In the 3^rd minute, applause rang out around the stadium for Stuart Pearce who fell ill on a flight and is now recovering in hospital. City had the first chance of the game gifted to them by Wood who, just outside his defensive penalty area, took too much time on the ball and Erling Haaland, lurking behind him, pinched it. Haaland took a few touches as red shirts closed him down and his low shot rolled just wide of the left post. The visitors had another close effort on goal just moments later. Doku had the ball on the left but passed back into the middle of the park where Nico was unmarked. No Forest player could get out in time to block the shot so he fired from around 25 yards out. The attempt hit the outside of the post. For the rest of the first half, possession was dominated by the visitors but Forest were getting forward and having a go as well as being defensively resolute.

The Reds started the second half brightly. They thought they took the lead through Callum Hudson-Odoi but Ederson had other ideas. Forest played some lovely football to set themselves on the break where Anderson passed out to Hudson-Odoi on the left of the penalty area. He cut inside before looking to curl one into the bottom right corner; Ederson got his fingertips to the ball to tip it onto the post. Next time the winger’s effort did find the back of the net. Morgan Gibbs-White received the ball in the middle of the pitch and played a beautiful cross field pass out to Hudson-Odoi on the right. Hudson-Odoi bore down on goal, entering the penalty area one on one with Gvardiol. The angle was against him, but he decided to aim for the near post where he beat Ederson. Absolute limbs!

City had one more chance left in them in stoppage time to find a late equaliser. City took a quick corner as Doku dribbled to the byline. Red shirts got tight to him to clear but only as far as Mateo Kovacic on the edge of the box. The ball bounced in front of him and he struck it on the volley, only to see if fly just wide of the right post. Forest spent the rest of stoppage time ticking down the clock and when Chris Kavanagh blew the full time, the City Ground erupted.

I genuinely can’t pick a man of the match from today’s game. Both full-backs stopped their danger on the wing. The centre backs kept Haaland quiet. Dominguez and Anderson were everywhere. Gibbs-White was helping out as well as creating and the 3 front men caused problems. We limited their chances and when it came to taking ours, we did. Even with the pressure of potentially dropping down two league places, we didn’t let it get to us and we showed up. We’ve also got the same number of clean sheets as Liverpool, twelve, and that’s now 3 consecutive clean sheets at home in the Premier League. The context surrounding this game still feels like a dream and we are now mathematically safe from relegation!

Forest: Sels; Williams, Murillo, Milenkovic, Aina; Anderson, Dominguez (Yates 69’); Hudson-Odoi (Morato 87'), Gibbs-White, Elanga (Sangare 80'); Wood (Awoniyi 87')

Manchester City: Ederson; Gvardiol, Dias, Khusanov, Nunes (Lewis 61'); Nico (Kovacic 62'); Doku, Foden (De Bruyne 69'), Silva, Savinho (Marmoush 69'); Haaland