Super-Subs scrap for vital point at Forest
Nottingham Forest 1 Liverpool 1, 14th January 2025
NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1 (Wood 8)
LIVERPOOL 1 (Jota 66)
The game of football, as I’m sure we can all agree, is a strangely beautiful beast at times. For 65 minutes, Liverpool shaded a fiercely contested first half of football before completely dominating a high flying Nottingham Forest team roared on by their vociferous City Ground faithful on the banks of the River Trent. Whilst the Liverpool Reds in their forever pleasing and traditional away kit of white and black controlled the game, they never forced a single save from the Forest Reds goalkeeper Matz Sels and the giant Belgian in their goal was a largely untroubled spectator as the team in front of him continued to lead 1–0 through Chris Wood’s expertly taken 8th minute goal. Then on 66 minutes Reds boss Arne Slot, in more or less a “shit or bust” move, substituted central defender Ibrahima Konaté, went to three at the back, introduced both Kostas Tsimikas and Diogo Jota from the substitutes bench and within 22 seconds both had conspired to level matters at 1–1 with their respective first touches of the match and 31 game playing minutes later including 7 minutes of excruciating and tension filled match ending injury time, the teams finished level, Liverpool remain 6 points clear at the top of the Premier League with a game in hand on the rest, Forest leapfrogged Arsenal into the nosebleed seat of second in the league and Matz Sels, so long a spectator, became the game’s arguable “Man of the Match”.
Although ex Liverpool Red Steve McManaman on TV co-commentary awarded the game’s outstanding player gong to Forest’s 22 year old erratically eccentric and bloody minded central defender Murillo, Matz Sels deserved the award for his five brilliant saves in relatively quick succession that ensured the teams remained level and his team, and Liverpool too to a degree, walked away from the City Ground with a hard earned Premier League point. Twice in 7 minutes he denied Reds goal scorer Diogo Jota a second goal with close-in saves before finger-tipping long range drives from Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo past his far post late in the game. These latter saves sandwiched another that denied Mo Salah on 87 minutes and when the giant Belgian was finally beaten by Salah a minute later, Ola Aina came to his rescue by blocking his fiercely driven shot on the goal line.
From “the over-achievers” leading “the aristocrats” according to TV commentator Darren Fletcher to Kostas Tsimikas’ first touch of the ball meeting the head of Diogo Jota and his first touch of the ball too. “What a substitution that was from Slot!” so continued Darren Fletcher “Tsimikas took it, Jota finished it, and the first touches from both of them makes it 1–1”. Steve McManaman called it “ridiculous” and it was, and perfectly in keeping with a pulsating Premier League contest between two auld enemies reviving memories of footballing battles of the past on the banks of the River Trent.
Arne’s Afterword
“I couldn’t have asked for more today. I think most people talk about the second half — that they are really positive about the second half. If you ask me, I am also more positive about the second half than the first half, but if you play at this ground against this team, who are in such good form, hardly concedes a chance in every single game — and I have watched many of them back… so many counter-attack threats, almost every game they have counter-attack after counter-attack after counter-attack. We conceded only one counter-attack here today in 98 minutes of football of total domination. Unfortunately for us, that ball immediately went in”.
“Then in the second half, our ball possession also led to a lot of chances. You have to give credit, again, to Nottingham because the way they defend, they throw themselves in front of shots, in front of every cross and then there is a goalkeeper that has an outstanding season this year and tonight again. Being 1–0 down over here and it’s so hard to score against this team, it’s not what we wanted — we want to have three points, but in the end what I want, what the fans should want and what the players should want is that they give it all they got during every single game they play. That is what they did today, combined with outstanding football in the second half”.
Thanks for reading. I pen my thoughts on every Liverpool game and in recent seasons, with the addition of numerous pieces of retro writing on Reds games of the past, I’ve curated and created the following two self-published books:
"A final word from The Boss" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
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"still life, with gooseberry" - link to Amazon
"Rasputin and Raspberry Jam" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
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