Nottingham Forest received a huge boost to their promotion hopes as they produced one of the narrow football scores of the weekend in the Premier League. Brighton had the upper hand in the first half, but Forest got a lifeline just before the break when Pascal Gross diverted Renan Lodi’s cross into the Brighton goal. It turned out to be the spark Steve Cooper’s struggling team needed, as they responded to Danilo’s goal before Morgan Gibbs-White’s penalty in stoppage time completed a resounding victory. With their first victory since February 5, Forest climbs one point ahead of 18th-place Leicester and leaves the top three. They still have five games to clinch a series victory. They finished eighth, 10 points below the top four, after losing to Brighton, undermining their chances of qualifying for Europe.
When Pervis Estupinan carelessly fouled Neco Williams to give Nottingham Forest a point in nine minutes, Brighton was destined to endure more penalties after Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final failure against Manchester United at Wembley. However, leading scorer Forest Johnson was thwarted by a superb stop from Brighton custodian Jason Steele after being reinstated to the starting lineup following his absence against Liverpool last weekend.
Spirits at the City Ground were subdued by Steele’s heroics and the injury to Moussa Niakhate, and Forest almost trailed after 30 minutes when Julio Enciso’s header off of a rebound from Kaoru Mitoma caused Keylor Navas to hit a beautiful shot. However, if Forest continues to play, Navas would be at fault because Brighton later converted the opportunity. After the Chilean’s weak goal kick delivered the ball right back to the opponents, he could only parry Solly March’s shot into Buonanotte’s path, who then headed the ball in.
To their credit, though, Forest managed to draw even in stoppage time when Gross altered Rena Lodi’s cross at the near post so that Steele could make a play on it. For the remainder of the first half, Brighton maintained their lead. as well. Going into halftime, Forest needed it badly, but after a great counterattack, Mitoma missed the goal with little under an hour remaining.
Williams’ significant injury, which necessitated him to leave the game on a stretcher after clashing with teammate Johnson, further hindered Forest’s chances up to the 69th minute. Danilo broke the ball down in midfield and intercepted Awoniyi’s through pass. After that, he accelerated into the last leg and overtook Steele. Gibbs-White was concerned when Forest missed a chance to win the game, but his concerns soon subsided when he converted their second penalty of the game after Dunk had unnecessarily handed the ball to Brighton to set up an unbelievable performance. amid the urban neighborhoods.
“The present is indisputably important, even though the outcome is always important. Although there were many advantages, you should make use of them now while you still can since we still have another game to play and it was a sound victory. On Saturday, we need to be fully ready for it. We need to be ready for Brentford,” said Nottingham Forest’s Steve Cooper. “The league will be more peaceful if we take care of ourselves and accomplish our goals. Tonight, we were successful in winning. We’ll try to fix it again on Saturday, but for now, it must be all we can think about. Even though I’m thrilled for the squad and the supporters because we haven’t won in a while, I don’t believe we should celebrate triumphs too much.”
“We played brilliantly during the first 35 minutes of the game, and then we deserved to lose because we lost our momentum. We knew it would be a tough game at Wembley, and we had the potential to score more goals in the opening 35 minutes, so we didn’t make many replacements,” Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi said. “We face a difficult season since we are not accustomed to playing three games a week, but because we do, we must make the most of the eight games we have to play in order to compete for our goals. I don’t want to talk that way after we lose the game because I know I’m telling the truth. I am proud of my teammates, even if we lost the game tonight.”
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