Nottingham Forest have climbed back into third position in the Premier League after beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1, with goals coming early from Elliot Anderson and Chris Wood keeping their UEFA Champions League dream a reality.
A consolation goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium from Richarlison in the last 10 minutes wasn’t enough for the North London side, as their Europa League excellence during the week against Eintracht Frankfurt has been clouded by a frankly disastrous league campaign which sees them currently sit in 16th position.
Before this fixture, The Reds had dropped to as low as sixth following the weekend’s results, but this strong defensive display and efficient finishing has paused the worries of dropping out of the qualification for Europe’s elite competition.
As it happened
The tone was set from the first minutes, as Morgan Gibbs-White tested the Spurs goal early to win a corner, which led to the opening goal just five minutes in. The corner wasn’t cleared properly and landed to the edge of the box to Anderson, who volleyed the ball first time. A deflection off Rodrigo Bentancur’s leg guided the strike past Guglielmo Vicario to give the away side a deserved lead.
After going ahead early on, Forest enjoyed a good spell of possession where the movement was fluid and the passing was crisp. That was rewarded with a second goal for the away side, but it was ruled out, as Wood creeped offside before getting on the end of an Anderson cross.
The home side avoided further embarrassment for only a few minutes before conceding a second goal. Forest capitalised on a flying first 15 minutes with a free kick that was played out wide to Anthony Elanga. The Swedish winger crossed from the left side and that was met by Wood as he flicked the ball over Vicario. Once again this season, Wood scored from an Elanga assist.
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter conceding two goals and most of the possession, Spurs flipped the script and created a number of chances which were either met by Matz Sels or fluffed by the attackers in white. A flurry of crosses showed a positive response to going behind, but Forest happily allowed Spurs the ball until they entered the box, where players were swarmed by red shirts promptly.
Two defensive substitutions from the home side gave an indication of how Ange Postecoglou felt about the first half display as he tried to sure up his back four following the poor outing from his captain, Cristian Romero, who rashly earned himself a yellow card in the first half.
The home side were millimetres from getting a goal back around the hour but were denied by a spectacular acrobatic Harry Toffolo goal line clearance. This was the full backs first Premier League start of the season and he justified his managers selection with that brave piece of defending.
Embed from Getty ImagesA lively and proactive performance from Mathys Tel and a long-range effort from Kevin Danso gave the illusion of an attacking threat but ultimately they didn’t challenge the Nottingham Forest keeper enough, as the away side kept their goal shut with more defensive excellence, which has become a regular for the east midlands side.
However, the home side’s threat grew as the game went on as an unbelievable stretching save was made by Sels after Richarlison positioned himself well between the Forest centre backs and directed a header well into the bottom corner, but he was ultimately denied by the goalkeeper’s strong right hand.
Richarlison finally converted one of his number of headed chances in the 86th minute to give Tottenham a glimmer of hope. Pedro Porro had consistently delivered crosses and lofted passes all game, but they lacked the presence in the box until the Brazilian lept above the Forest defenders to make it 2-1.
Embed from Getty ImagesNot the first time this season, Nottingham Forest hit the opposition early with attacking thrust and held on to their lead by bringing on Morato in the second-half to clinch a valuable three points, while Tottenham Hotspur showed glimpses of attacking coherence but were let down by lack of concentration at the back and efficiency up top.
Both teams will now have their heads turned to other competitions, with Nottingham Forest set to face Manchester City in the FA Cup this Sunday, while Tottenham will face Bodø/Glimt in the Europa League semi-final.
The lineups
NFO: Sels; Williams, Milenkovic, Murillo, Toffolo; Danilo, Anderson; Dominguez, Gibbs-White, Elanga; Wood.
TOT: Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Spence; Sarr, Bentancur; Kulusevski, Odobert, Richarlison; Tel