Ben Fisher’s report is in, so I’m going to wrap this blog up. And don’t forget you can join Barry Glendenning for coverage of the 3pm games. Ta-ra!
Jurgen Klopp speaks
The performance I can kind of explain, the result not. I never saw a game where one team has …. I’m not sure, four or five no-brainers from a set-piece. We have to finish them off. We should have put the game to bed. The goal we conceded was a big mistake from us [by Joe Gomez]. All the chances they had we gave them, because too often we played the wrong pass.
We had to play three games in six days with a really limited squad. That’s just how it is. Result-wise, we should have showed consistency today with better finishing.
Our next game is Wednesday so it’s like a holiday. I hope a few players will be back. Forest showed fight. It’s the Premier League, they are all good and they all fight. But giving a team six clear-cut chances from set pieces, I’m not sure I should be praising Forest to be honest. They are a great team, Steve is a fantastic manager, but we have to win today. Done. And we didn’t, so credit to Nottingham Forest.
The player of the match Ryan Yates speaks
It’s what we needed. We’ve been putting in good performances in recent weeks and we thoroughly deserved that today. The manager said before the game that we had to get the crowd behind us from the first minute, and we did that. [On Dean Henderson’s save] Unbelievable. It’s what he’s there for! [Is this a turning point?] It’s gotta be. It’s gotta be. If we can beat Liverpool we can beat anyone.
The matchwinner Taiwo Awoniyi speaks
I think I played a good game for my team. We had a plan, to be compact and try to get a goal, and I’m very happy that we won. Liverpool brought me into football, they signed me when I was 18, so it’s an emotional game for me. We have to thank the fans.
As well as the victory, it’s a second consecutive clean sheet for Forest. That’s really significant because they were haemorrhaging goals a month ago.
Steve Cooper is warmly congratulated by Trent Alexander-Arnold, who he coached in the Liverpool Academy. The atmosphere at the City Ground is wonderful. Whatever happens this season, they’ll remember this game forever.
Full time: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Liverpool
A famous victory for Nottingham Forest! If this doesn’t kickstart their season, then nothing will. They played with brains and heart against a below-par Liverpool, whose miserable away form continues. Forest also needed an immense late save from Dean Henderson, who has jumped straight in to celebrate with the home fans!
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90+6 min: Johnson hits the post! Forest break from a Liverpool corner, with Alisson still upfield, and Johnson hits the post from 30 yards!
90+5 min After a game of head tennis in the Forest area, Henderson tips Salah’s looping header over the bar. That was a comfortable save.
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90+2 min: Wonderful save from Henderson! Robertson’s outswinging corner finds Van Dijk, unmarked eight yards out. He powers a textbook downward header to the left of Henderson, who somehow gets down to make a fantastic save! The ball rebounds in front of goal, and Yates protects it until he is fouled by Alisson.
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90+2 min Another corner to Liverpool, and Alisson is coming forward.
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90+1 min Five minutes of added time.
90 min: Just wide from Van Dijk! Alexander-Arnold curls a lovely ball beyond the far post, where Van Dijk stretches to cushion a volley back across goal with his left foot. It just evades Salah and runs behind for a goalkick.
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90 min Freuler is booked, presumably for dissent.
89 min Lodi fouls Elliott 25 yards from goal, to the right of centre. This is a chance for Liverpool…
88 min Worrall is booked for timewasting.
86 min: Great save from Alisson! Yates wins the ball in midfield and plays it to Gibbs-White on the left. He waits for the right moment to clip a lovely return pass into the path of Yates, who pings a shot towards the far corner. Alisson spreads himself and diverts it over the bar with his left bicep. That’s outstanding goalkeeping.
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85 min: Good save from Henderson! Jones plays in the underlapping Robertson, who digs out an excellent cross towards the far post. Alexander-Arnold comes on the blindside of Lodi, eight yards out, and powers a header that is pushed away to his left by Henderson.
84 min Van Dijk seems okay.
83 min Yet another injury concern for Liverpool, with Van Dijk needing treatment. It’s a problem with his right foot.
80 min Forest bring on Orel Mangala for the thoroughly shattered Cheikhou Kouyate. He’s been terrific.
78 min Robertson’s outswinging corner is headed down by Van Dijk and cleared by Cook.
77 min Kouyate rumbles into the area from the left and picks out Yates on the edge of the area. His shot is slightly tame and deflects through to Alisson. That was a chance for Forest.
77 min: Liverpool substitution Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain replaces… Roberto Firmino. That’s a bit of a surprise, even if Firmino hasn’t been great today.
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73 min Forest are 17 minutes away from a famous victory, one that would move them off the bottom of the table.
72 min Another change for Forest. Renan Lodi replaces Neco Williams at left-back.
72 min “Sunday feels like a long time ago, suddenly,” says Matt Dony.
71 min Alexander-Arnold’s cross is deflected towards Jones on the edge of the area. He takes it on the chest and hits a volley straight at Henderson.
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70 min Kouyate has given himself cramp with that run. Forest’s midfield three – Kouyate, Yates and Freueler – has been really excellent today.
69 min: Good save from Alisson! Another excellent counter-attack from Forest. Kouyate charges the length of the field, playing a long-range one-two with Gibbs-White in the process, and crosses low towards Johnson at the near post. He doesn’t connect properly with a first-time shot on the run and it’s pushed round the post by the diving Alisson.
66 min The pressure is mounting. Alexander-Arnold’s cross is shinned behind by Cook, and he trots across to take the corner. It’s headed away superbly by Cook, under all sorts of pressure from Van Dijk at the far post.
65 min Forest lose the ball in a dangerous area, but Firmino’s cutback evades both Salah and Jones in the middle.
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64 min A double substitution for Forest. Joe Worrall and Brennan Johnson replace the goalscorer Taiwo Awoniyi, who has run himself into the ground, and Jesse Lingard. That means a switch to a back five.
63 min: Chance for Liverpool! Alexander-Arnold’s wicked inswinging corner is headed into the ground and over the bar by Firmino, six yards out. He saw it very late, and had to stoop to make contact, so it wasn’t an easy chance.
62 min Liverpool make a double substitution: Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold replace James Milner, who was excellent actually, and Fabio Carvalho.
58 min: Great defending from Milner! Forest almost make it two. Awoniyi leads a four-on-three break from a Liverpool corner and plays the ball across to Gibbs-White in the area. He takes a touch and sidefoots a shot that is brilliantly blocked by the sliding Milner.
57 min: Good save from Henderson! Milner slides a pass infield to the onrushing Elliott, whose right-footed shot is pushed round the near post by Henderson.
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57 min Robertson and Fabinho has a bit of a disagreement after the goal. It’s really hard to reconcile lethargic, sloppy performances like that with the relentless brilliance we’ve seen from Liverpool over the past five years.
The free-kick for that Gomez foul was launched across the field to Cook on the right. He hammered a cross into a crowded area that was shinned against the post by Awoniyi. The ball came straight back to him, and he volleyed it gleefully into the roof of the net from six yards.
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GOAL! Nottm Forest 1-0 Liverpool (Awoniyi 55)
Taiwo Awoniyi has scored against his old club!
54 min Gomez is booked for pulling back Awoniyi, who won the ball on the halfway line and wa smaking his way towards goal. Steve Cooper thinks it should be a red card, but he was too far away for it to be regarded a clear goalscoring opportunity.
53 min Liverpool have a hopeful penalty appeal turned down when Elliott runs into Cook.
52 min Milner’s free-kick finds Salah completely unmarked, 12 yards out, but he makes a complete mess of an attempted volley. He had time to bring that down. The ball runs across to Carvalho, who sprays over the bar.
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51 min Liverpool’s injury list means they don’t have many attacking options on the bench. The best is a right-back, Trent Alexander-Arnold, though they also have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Bobby Clark.
50 min Milner’s deep, floated cross is headed off target by Carvalho, who saw it very late, and McKenna is able to clear from inside the six-yard box.
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48 min Williams hits a long-range shot that is blocked by Gomez. That was quite a promising Forest break but Williams took the wrong option.
46 min Peep peep! Liverpool begin the second half.
“Salah was down for about two minutes,” says David Buckley. “The match stopped. Yet there was only one minute of added time. Can you explain that one to me?”
No. You’re welcome.
“Talking about mid-90s nostalgia,” says Bogdan Kotarlic, “I remember (I don`t know why) Leicester City, their great Filbert Street stadium , their beautiful blue kit and their awesome players Emile Heskey, Muzzy Izzet, Steve Guppy and Neil Lennon. Great days!”
Half-time reading
This is delightful stuff.
Half time: Nottm Forest 0-0 Liverpool
Forest have frustrated Liverpool with a fiercely determined defensive performance. They had their moments on the counter too, especially through Taiwo Awoniyi, though Liverpool had the best chance when Virgil van Dijk inexplicably turned down a header from six yards.
44 min Salah seems okay. He’s been very quiet, but there are no signs of back trouble.
42 min “Huge weekend for mid-90s nostalgia,” says Neill Brown. “New record released by Leftfield; Suede on Jools Holland; Forest v Liverpool in the Premier League; me being awake after 11pm; the UK only a few years away from a non-Tory government; Liverpool in unattractive white outfits. What a time to be barely alive! Anyway, this game needs a goal.”
41 min Kouyate flies into a tackle on Elliott and is lucky not to be booked. Elliott jumps straight to his feet, when many players would have tried to get him in trouble.
39 min I’m still trying to make sense of that van Dijk header.
37 min: What a chance for van Dijk! Milner’s corner is headed back to him on the right. He curls a brilliant left-footed cross to find van Dijk unmarked at the far post, six yards out. For some reason he tries to head it square to Firmino rather than going for goal, and the ball drifts behind for a goalkick. That was highly weird; all he had to do was plant a relatively simple header past Henderson.
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35 min Firmino turns Cook beautifully but then overhits a lofted through ball to Elliott.
35 min Salah is back on the field.
34 min Salah is on his feet, so maybe it was an impact injury rather than a muscle problem. He’s limping quite heavily though.
33 min It looks like a lower-back problem for Salah. Liverpool’s grotesque injury list could be about to get even worse.
32 min Salah is rolling round in pain after a challenge from the back by McKenna. This is a worry because I don’t think McKenna really touched him, and he looks in a helluva lot of pain.
31 min Foresrt break dangerously again. The excellent Awoniyi holds the ball up and then find Lingard on the edge of the area to his left. He whistles a first-time shot on the run that is well held by Alisson.
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30 min Elliott does well to keep the ball alive and cushion it infield to Salah on the edge of the area. He shoots straight at Henderson.
29 min Steve Cooper turns round in disgust as another Lingard pass goes astray. The poor lad is having a stinker.
28 min It’s been another flat performance from Liverpool, who still haven’t won away from home in the league this season. That said, Forest deserve a lot of credit for their defensive organisation.
27 min Aurier’s deep cross is missed near the byline by Alisson, but Kouyate (I think) can only head the ball back into the centre rather than towards goal. He did well just to keep it in play.
25 min McKenna nicks the ball and finds Awoniyi on the left. He moves inside and mishits a low shot from 20 yards that bobbles through to Alisson.
24 min “Correction,” says Miles Jackson. “Atmosphere is treemendous.”
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23 min Elliott’s flat cross is headed wide by Carvalho, under pressure from Aurier at the near post. Elliott looks bright.
22 min There’s very little space in the centre of the field, such is the discipline and diligence of Forest’s midfield three. I’m a bit surprised the full-backs haven’t got forward more, especially Robertson.
20 min At the other end Jones crosses low towards Salah, whose snapshot hits McKenna and goes behind for a corner. In other news, the atmosphere is tremendous.
19 min Nice play from Forest. Gibbs-White feeds the ball into Awoniyi in the area. He lays it back invitingly to Kouyate, whose low shot from the edge of the area is comfortably saved by Alisson.
16 min Liverpool have had 74 per cent of the possession so far. Most of it has been in harmless areas though.
13 min “Re: Stephen Carr at 6 mins,” says John Burrell. “To be fair, Thiago did have a note from his mum.”
Yeah but so did Carlos Kaiser.
11 min Forest break three-on-three. Gibbs-White finds Lingard, who overruns the ball and is dispossessed by Gomez. The poor lad is really struggling at the moment.
10 min Milner swings a corner into the middle, where Firmino pulls away from Cook and heads just wide of the far post. That was an excellent chance.
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9 min: Good save from Henderson! Elliott moseys infields from the right and wedges a terrific 40-yard pass over the Forest defence. Carvalho pulls it down beautifully on the run and flicks a shot that is blocked at close range by Henderson.
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8 min This has been a decent start from Forest, who have kept Liverpool at arm’s length. Eight down, 82 to go.
6 min “Thiago adding illness to his litany of absence reasons,” says Stephen Carr. “I think we are going to have to get HR involved.”
5 min Aurier is fouled by Jones, which allows Forest to send the big men forward. Gibbs-White’s free-kick is headed away by van Dijk.
3 min Lots of early possession for Liverpool, though Forest are snapping around in midfield when they get the opportunity.
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2 min Apparently Thiago Alcantara is unwell, not injured, which I suppose is good news for Liverpool. He could be back for the trip to Amsterdam in the week.
1 min Peep peep! Forest kick off from left to right as we watch.
The players stroll out of the tunnel on a pleasant afternoon in Nottingham. The home fans are making their usual racket. The atmosphere is fantastic.
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“Hi Rob,” says Simon Payne. “How many games must there have been when both right backs wear #7? Perhaps this comment was more interesting in my head.”
Not at all – it has allowed me to demonstrate some truly loathsome pedantry by pointing out that Neco Williams, Forest’s No7, will probably play at left-back.
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Jurgen Klopp will be on the touchline today. He’s accepted an FA charge of losing the noggin but will not receive his punishment until next week.
Team news
Forest make two changes from the midweek draw at Brighton. The former Liverpool striker Taiwo Awoniyi and Cheikhou Kouyate replace Brennan Johnson and Orel Mangala.
Liverpool are without the injured pair of Darwin Nunez and Thiago Alcantara. They’re replaced by Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones, which probably means Mo Salah will play up front. Fabinho is in for Jordan Henderson and Jurgen Klopp has also changed both full-backs.
Nottingham Forest (4-3-3) Henderson; Aurier, McKenna, Cook, Williams; Yates, Freuler, Kouyate; Gibbs-White, Awoniyi, Lingard.
Substitutes: Hennessey, Biancone, Worrall, Boly, Lodi, Mangala, Surridge, Johnson, Dennis.
Liverpool (4-2-3-1) Alisson; Milner, Gomez, van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Jones; Elliott, Firmino, Carvalho; Salah.
Substitutes: Adrian, Kelleher, Tsimikas, Bajcetic, Phillips, Alexander-Arnold, Henderson. Oxlade-Chamberlain, Clark.
Referee Paul Tierney.
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Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Nottingham Forest v Liverpool at the City Ground. For a couple of years at the end of the 1970s, this was the biggest game in English football. Forest won the League Cup final and dethroned Liverpool as European champions; Liverpool ended Forest’s record 42-game unbeaten run and took their league title.
The game has a different identity now, but it still feels like a biggie. Forest have improved defensively, conceding only two in their last three games, but what they need now is a famous victory to kickstart their season. Liverpool will hope that the win over Manchester City last weekend was their catalyst. They followed up with another 1-0 victory over West Ham in midweek, and today they are chasing their first away win in the league this season. Liverpool are seven points behind City, so a title challenge is not completely beyond the realms. All they can do is keep winning, and see where it takes them.
Kick off 12.30pm.
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