Nottingham Forest are "lucky to have" Keylor Navas after the goalkeeper pulled out all the stops against Manchester City, even going so far as to use the proverbial family jewels to protect his goal.
The 36-year-old, who joined the Reds on loan from Paris Saint-Germain on deadline day in the January transfer window, rolled back the years with a stellar performance against the Premier League champions on Sunday. He made five saves in the game, with only Fulham's Bernd Leno (7) making more across the weekend's action.
Three of them were from range, most notably his save from Ilkay Gundogan's direct free-kick, but two of them were from inside the six-yard box from corners. Navas stopped Ruben Dias for one of them, while he denied Aymeric Laporte for the other with his groin.
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It was a painful but necessary action to keep Forest in the game. Bernardo Silva had given City the lead just before halftime, but the floodgates did not open as one might have assumed they would.
Chris Wood poked home late on after Morgan Gibbs-White flashed the ball across the face of the goal to make sure the hosts came away with a point. It was the first time in eight attempts the club has gotten a positive result against the reigning top flight champions.
BBC pundit Garth Crooks lavished praise on the "top-class" shot stopper while chiding City for not getting the job done earlier in the contest.
"With 10 minutes left to play, Manchester City should have had this game at Forest done and dusted. Instead they succumbed to a late equaliser and left the City Ground with one point in what was a lacklustre performance," the former Tottenham and Stoke City forward wrote in his weekly column.
"Much of the credit for Forest gaining a very valuable point must go to Navas. The Costa Rica international goalkeeper used everything at his disposal to keep City at bay. His fingertip save from Ilkay Gundogan's free-kick was tremendous while the stop from Aymeric Laporte's header, at point-blank range with his nether-regions, was nothing short of heroic if not extremely painful. Navas has a top-class pedigree and Forest are lucky to have him."
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