“Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that,” came the barbs from the Nottingham Forest supporters before and after their side snatched an unlikely draw that could have ramifications for Manchester City’s hopes of recording a third successive Premier League title. There are, of course, still three months to run in the title race and Arsenal, who are two points clear with a game in hand over City, still have to visit the Etihad Stadium in April. But Pep Guardiola stared at the floor as he headed down the tunnel alone with his thoughts, doubtless replaying uncharacteristic misses by Erling Haaland and Phil Foden in his mind after watching his players pass up the opportunity to return top of the pile.
City dominated the game, completing almost three times as many passes as Forest. They registered 23 shots, six on goal, one of which Bernardo Silva rifled in first time from the edge of the box to give the visitors the lead four minutes before the interval. At that point it felt almost inevitable that City would go on to secure victory but then Foden fluffed his lines early in the second half, his loose touch putting paid to his hopes of doubling their lead, before Haaland rattled the bar and skied the rebound after Keylor Navas parried a vicious effort by Foden. The Forest substitute Chris Wood tapped in to score his first Forest goal and equalise with his side’s only shot on target.
Guardiola’s frustrations got the better of him before Wood struck with six minutes of normal time to play, the City manager booked for racing on to the pitch to protest at the referee, Graham Scott, for not awarding a penalty after Haaland fell under little pressure from the returning Forest captain, Joe Worrall. Guardiola spent almost the entirety of the first half with his hands locked to his hips on the edge of his technical area, baffled at how an unmarked Rodri headed wide from a clever, flat Kevin De Bruyne cross and why Ilkay Gündogan undercooked his shot from close range. “In the first half it should have been 2-0 or 3-0,” Guardiola said. “We missed too many clear chances.”
Cooper knew the difficulty of stifling City but recognised these are the occasions supporters pined for in their 23 years outside the top flight. Forest fans walked back over the Trent marvelling at extending their unbeaten home record to eight matches after earning another valuable point. Brennan Johnson nudged the ball to Morgan Gibbs-White and his cross picked out Wood. Better still, the Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, was here to witness it.
Cooper arched his back as Forest, who often set up to flummox their opponents with 11 men behind the ball, extinguished waves of early City attacks, some with more ease than others. Serge Aurier earned a warm ovation from the Forest support after his slide tackle on Haaland siphoned the ball from the City forward. Worrall, who partnered Felipe at centre-back, resorted to crudely fouling Jack Grealish, whose yellow shirt by the end was caked in mud stains, but the chances kept on coming. City, however, failed to take them and head to Leipzig for their Champions League last-16 first leg on Wednesday with the feelgood factor from victory over Arsenal in midweek long forgotten.
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“We knew the game was going to look like it did,” Cooper said. “You don’t [want to] say it too much before the game but you are playing against an incredible team, for me the best team in the world at domestic level. I think you have to sacrifice the ideals in the game to try and get something out of the game. We put a plan in place to stay in the game for as long as we could. I know they had loads of the ball and loads of territory but I thought we defended really well.”
An ecstatic Cooper skipped down the touchline after Wood’s equaliser but Guardiola will be left to stew on how a game they should have put to bed wriggled out of their grasp. The obvious moment to reflect on came on 68 minutes, when Haaland squandered two chances to score his 27th goal of the season after Navas thwarted Foden. The ball boomeranged back to the striker after he rattled the bar before scooping his second attempt way over. Haaland glanced towards the grey skies and pursed his lips. Navas then tipped over Gündogan’s free-kick after Jonjo Shelvey fouled Grealish. How they would rue those misses. “Today was not our day,” said Guardiola.
