Highlights, report and reaction: Nottingham Forest 1 Brentford 1
"City Ground Sees Brentford And Forest Tie Game"
To begin with, Moussa Niakhaté received his second yellow card after committing a poor foul on Yoane Wissa which resulted in the home team being left with only 10 players.
After the free-kick, Christian Nørgaard scored for Brentford's team. However, Forest's team managed to even the score seven minutes later thanks to Nicolás Domínguez.
Towards the end of the game, Brentford attempted numerous attacks, however, the home team showed great defensive effort and determination to secure a draw.
Brentford Ends Half With Flourish, Turner Denies Janelt
To mix things up for the game, Thomas Frank swapped three players from the recent match against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup. Keane Lewis-Potter, Kristoffer Ajer, and Mathias Jensen came in to replace Zanka, Mads Roerslev, and Frank Onyeka.
Forest recently made three changes to their starting lineup for their game against Manchester City which unfortunately ended in a 2-0 defeat. The left-back position was given to Murillo instead of Nuno Tavares while Callum Hudson-Odoi took the place of Ola Aina. Their attacking line-up also saw a change when Anthony Elanga started in place of Morgan Gibbs-White.
The first half of the game at the City Ground was cautious, as both teams had possession of the ball for long periods. Although Forest had control of the ball in more threatening areas than Brentford in the beginning, they didn't get many opportunities to score.
At the seven-minute mark, the team believed they had scored first with Taiwo Awoniyi's goal via Murillo's assist. However, it was deemed offside upon inspection by VAR. The Forest striker had simply mistimed his run, which was later confirmed by the review system.
During the first half-hour of the game, Forest had the upper hand. Elanga attempted a shot that missed the near post of Mark Flekken, and Pinnock obstructed Sangaré's long-range attempt with his body.
Nonetheless, Brentford took control in the last 15 minutes of the first half as they found success in isolating Bryan Mbeumo and, specifically, Lewis-Potter against their opposing fullback.
Murillo's crucial intervention stopped Nathan Collins from scoring off Mbeumo's tricky free-kick. As a result, a corner was given, which Pinnock flicked wide of the post that was closer to him.
Towards the end of the first half, there was a dispute when the Bees were not given two penalties that seemed to be handball in rapid succession.
Just moments after Matt Turner successfully defended Vitaly Janelt's redirected shot from a cunning free-kick strategy, the players of the opposing team made an appeal. Nørgaard proceeded to kick the ball back in, but it unfortunately missed its target, Wissa, who was situated in the central area.
During the subsequent corner kick, Domínguez attempted to take control of the ball. However, both he and Janelt leaped up to get the loose ball, causing it to drop. Meanwhile, Willy Boly also tried to handle the ball with his hand while being pressured by Ajer.
Forest Draw After Domínguez Scores To Equalize Nørgaard's Header With Ten Men
Brentford started the second half with speed, causing problems for Forest's defense for a long time.
Turner experienced a previous attempt at clearance stopped by Nørgaard. When presented with another opportunity, he hesitated, resulting in Wissa stealing the ball from him near the goal. Boly was able to recover and clear the ball from within the six-yard box. Nonetheless, Brentford showed dissatisfaction towards the referee for Turner's apparent foul on Wissa during his clearance attempt. Despite this, Paul Tierney chose not to make a call.
Boly once again made an important move by stopping Janelt's strong shot, and Lewis-Potter missed the goal before the crucial two minutes that turned the game around.
Wissa, who was full of energy, took the ball away from Boly near the centre-circle and started running towards the goal. Niakhaté, who had already received a yellow card for making a rough tackle on Jensen in the first half, tried to get the ball back twice but failed. On his third attempt, he accidentally stepped on the back of Wissa's leg, causing the referee, Tierney, to hand him another yellow card and send him off the pitch.
Brentford had some great luck when Jensen made a perfect delivery, which landed directly on Nørgaard's head. Turner, who was trying to defend, couldn't stop the captain's header from 12 yards out, which managed to go past him and into the net. Even though VAR took a while to examine the goal, Nørgaard had done a fantastic job of timing his run so he was onside and the goal was valid.
Brentford made a lot of effort to take the lead, but it was all for nothing as Harry Toffolo, who came off the bench, sent in a curving pass that Domínguez headed over the goalkeeper, Flekken, and into the net from a distance of 12 yards after seven minutes.
Returning to a draw, Forest showed impressive skill in evening out the playing field despite having fewer players. They effectively defended their area and compelled Frank's team to keep their play in a less threatening position.
Opportunities for a victor arose only in the last couple of minutes, when Brentford rapidly shifted their tactics.
Toffolo stopped two crucial attempts by substitute Neal Maupay and Mbeumo by blocking them, and also prevented a wild shot from Frank Onyeka who was at the edge of the box.
Turner saved Maupay's shot that was hooked from a cross made by Nørgaard, but Mbeumo was stopped from taking a shot by Gibbs-White's great movement back when Wissa cleared a path for him.
The referee added 13 minutes of extra time, during which both teams had opportunities to win the game.
Mbeumo scored a goal from Mads Roerslev's pass, however, Chris Wood was unable to redirect Gibbs-White's pass towards the net.
Almost scoring the winning point, Michael Olakigbe, a teenager, came very close. However, Boly was in the right position to clear the path in front of the goal after Michael's low shot from the left managed to move past Turner. After the corner that followed, Nørgaard attempted a shot that arched towards the top of the net but landed on the rooftop instead.
Boly had a key role in the game's final moments. Initially, he redirected Gibbs-White's free-kick, which just missed the target. Subsequently, Boly made another critical block, frustrating Wissa.
The Bees were close to winning the match with Maupay as the hero during the final minutes of added time. However, a defender blocked Maupay's shot from 12 yards away, preventing the Bees from getting three points.
Brentford had a squad consisting of Flekken as goalkeeper and Ajer as the defender who was later substituted by Roerslev at the eighty-ninth minute. As for Collins, he was on defense with Pinnock and Hickey who was replaced by Ghoddos at the sixty-ninth minute. In midfield, the team had Nørgaard, Janelt, Jensen who later made way for Onyeka at the sixty-ninth minute, while up front the players were Mbeumo, Lewis-Potter who was later substituted by Maupay at the seventy-fifth minute, and Wissa.
The players who did not participate in the match were Strakosha, Zanka, Yarmoliuk, and Brierley.
The football team from Nottingham Forest showed up with their starting players for the game. Turner was the goalkeeper and the defense comprised Aurier, Niakhate, Boly and Murillo. The midfield trio comprised of Mangala, Sangare (later substituted with Kouyate) and Dominguez (Substituted for Origi towards the end of the game). The front three consisted of Elanga (substituted with Gibbs-White), Hudson-Odoi (also substituted with Toffolo) and Awoniyi (substituted with Wood later in the game). However, Niakhate was given a red card during the game and had to leave early.
The substitutes who were not utilized during the game include Odisseas, Worrall, Santos, and Montiel.
"We Deserved To Win," Says Frank
Coach Thomas Frank thinks that his team should have won the football match at the City Ground on Sunday. He thinks they deserved all three points.
Currently, we are facing a challenging situation where obtaining three points is proving to be difficult," he stated.
We firmly believe that if we play well and make progress, we will earn points. If we consider everything, we should have emerged victorious in this match.
With a score of 1-0 and their opponents down to 10 players, [Domínguez] managed to hit a remarkable header that has a success rate of only once in a hundred attempts.
Later on, it was possible for us to score, but unfortunately, we were unable to. Nottingham's commendable defense tactics prevented us from achieving our goal.
Lewis-Potter: We Gave It Our All
Talking about the Bees' match against Forest, Keane Lewis-Potter shared that both he and his teammates were unhappy with only securing a single point at the City Ground; however, they plan to focus on the encouraging aspects of their performance and bring that momentum into their upcoming game against Manchester United.
He stated that the morale in the locker room was low following the outcome. In particular, they became disheartened after one of their players was sent off, although they had domination over the match.
Right after our opposition team went under, we scored, but in no time, they made their way to our end and scored a goal. It's certainly a challenging situation for us, but we need to continue working diligently and staying united as a team.
We tried our best, but sometimes luck just isn't on our side. As of now, I don't think things are going in our favor. Nonetheless, we'll accept the one point earned and move forward.
