Liverpool (H) 14/01/25

 

Nottingham Forest 1-1 Liverpool

Wood 8'                                        Jota 66'

 

A cold winter night under the City Ground lights. The atmosphere electric. Fans buzzing. Players oozing with confidence. Forest only 6 points behind the league leaders. Talk of the fixture being a title decider. A win meaning we are only 3 points behind them. Could we actually do the double over Liverpool for the first time in 63 years?

Back in September, we all remember that famous victory. Callum Hudson-Odoi’s trademark finish giving us our first win at Anfield in 55 years. However, the previous season we couldn’t manage to nick any points off Liverpool as they came out 3-0 winners Merseyside and 1-0 winners Trent side. However, historically, Liverpool have struggled at the City Ground in the Premier League. In their last 5 visits to the World Famous, Liverpool have only won once. 3 of the fixtures ending draws and the other coming in our first season back in the top flight where Taiwo Awoniyi got the winning goal. Both sides have faced off in many feisty European fixtures and have 8 European Cups between them. I can imagine for the generations who witnessed these games, yesterday definitely reminded them of these times. This game felt massive.

After a roar of Mull of Kintyre and a banner to show the visitors the fortress they had come to, the game got underway. Forest showed their defensive strength early on as they limited Liverpool‘s few opening chances to be blazed over the bar. These opportunities were punished as the hosts opened the scoring. After a heading match in the middle of the field, Hudson-Odoi finally managed to control the ball before Mo Salah could pinch it. He found Anthony Elanga in space before the Swede played a beautifully timed pass through the gap between Alexander-Arnold and Van Dijk to find Chris Wood on the left. The angle was against the forward but he clinically hit his first time left foot finish across goal to find the bottom right corner. Absolute limbs. We all started to question if we could actually do this. It all felt so surreal.

I’m wondering when Murillo will finally score from outside the box and just minutes after the goal, I thought he had. Unfortunately, his shot flew just over the crossbar. The hosts started to settle and let Liverpool have the possession. Their shape was so compact that the visitors struggled to find a way through. Their one real moment came on the counter attack as Luiz Diaz went one on one with Murillo but the centre half delayed him to let his team mates get back before sticking a leg out to stop a pass to an on running Cody Gakpo and regain possession for his team. The rest of the half consisted of Forest being so defensively strong that Liverpool had no choice but to try and beat Sels with a long-range effort.

The first real action of the second half was the Liverpool equaliser. Kostas Tsimikas whipped in a delightful corner from the right-hand side. Diogo Jota rose the highest in the box to head the ball into the bottom left corner. Just 22 seconds before, the goal scorer and provider were subbed on by Arne Slot. The definition of super subs! Forest did argue that Matz Sels was fouled but the referee and VAR disagreed. The substitution of Jota completely changed the game. Liverpool were now playing with a back 3, only containing 1 centre back, as they looked to push for a winner. There were only 10 minutes of normal time to play but that’s when the game got really exciting. It was beginning to grow end to end and both teams became very open.

The talk of the rest of the game was the unbelievable saves Sels kept pulling off as the City Ground grew nervy with fears of now losing the game. Liverpool were relentless and did not give the hosts the chance to breathe. Alexander-Arnold recycled the ball, from Forest clearing the ball from the back post. He put in a first-time cross back into the 6-yard box and Milenkovic put in a tackle to stop Gakpo getting there, but the ball landed to Jota who shot on the half volley. The Forest ‘keeper rushed out and made himself big to stop him. Dominic Szoboszlai was the next to test the Belgian. He took a low shot towards the bottom right corner from the edge of the ‘D’ but Sels got down well to parry it out for a corner. Mo Salah’s first real chance of the game also forced Sels to make another brilliant save. Mac Allister received the ball more centrally as Liverpool looked for the perfect pass to break down Forest. He played it into the box to the feet of Salah who turned and looked to loop it over Sels into the top left corner. Sels leaped up to make the one handed save.

The hosts were not done pushing for a late winner. Alexander-Arnold whipped in a corner from the left that was punched away by an under pressure Sels. Salah and Morgan Gibbs-White both looked to get their first but the Egyptian did as he turned and struck neatly towards goal on the volley. If Sels wasn’t there someone else was! It hit Ola Aina’s knee on the line and Forest could clear. One more save from Sels and the hosts had earned their point. Gakpo cut in after receiving the ball on the left side and fired low towards the bottom right corner. Through all the traffic and a deflection, Sels kept his eyes on the ball and once again got down well to save his team.

I am so proud of our performance. Every single one of the lads put absolutely everything in and I’ll be surprised if any of them can even walk today. Sels is some goalkeeper. I’d say he’s the best in the league. 5 unbelievable saves in the space of 20 minutes to make sure we held onto that point. Looking back he is probably my man of the match. However, originally it was Murillo as I felt he was just absolutely everywhere and the first to every ball. Clearly I was right as earlier I went onto Instagram and saw he made 17 clearances, the most of any player in one match this season. Shoutout to Neco as well as Salah has only blanked 3 teams this season and yesterday was one of them. Elliot also played a part in that as those 2 doubled up on him. Our resilience in that second half was incredible. We really dug deep as they piled on so much pressure. One lapse in concentration from a corner left us all disappointed but if we look at that second half we should be happy. It was a game of 2 halves though as we were dominant in that first half and Woody took his goal brilliantly. A goal that sums us up I think. One of my highlights was the ‘In your head’ song towards Slot and even he was laughing. Winning the league may have been too optimistic but there’s no reason why this team can’t bring European football to the City Ground. COYR!

 

Forest: Sels; Williams (Moreno 90’), Murillo, Milenkovic, Aina ; Anderson, Yates (Dominguez 76’); Hudson-Odoi (Jota Silva 83’), Gibbs-White (Morato 90’), Elanga; Wood (Awoniyi 90’)

 

Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate (Jota 66’), Van Dijk, Robertson (Tsimikas 65’); Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Szoboszlai, Gakpo; Luiz Diaz (Jones 75’)