Premier League: Missed opportunity for Man City
Nottingham Forest 1 - 1 Manchester City
Manchester City missed the opportunity to return to the top of the Premier League with a draw against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
Chris Wood's late goal cancelled out Bernardo Silva's rocket from 20 yards, with the visitors missing chances in abundance to put the game to bed.
Erling Haaland volleyed against the crossbar and ballooned the rebound over the top after Aymeric Laporte's header was brilliantly saved by Forest keeper Keylor Navas.
Forest claimed a stunning later point. Morgan Gibbs-White's fizzed cross was tapped in at the far post in the 84th minute for Wood's first Forest goal.
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Forest scored with their only attempt on target, having created four chances to City's 23 The draw extended Forest's unbeaten home run to eight games and meant City dropped to second after Arsenal returned to the top with a 4-2 comeback win against Aston Villa earlier on Saturday.
City rue missed opportunities
How much of an impact will this draw have? After being limited to 37% possession against Arsenal in midweek, the lowest percentage of any Guardiola team in the top flight, City returned to some semblance of normality with a dominant 84% in the opening period on Saturday.
Phil Foden was a highlight for City, driving forward and making a nuisance of himself to a depleted Forest backline.
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Every player had missed chances. Silva sent a decent effort from range whistling over the bar moments before receiving the ball on the edge of the area and firing a stunning left-footed shot into the roof of the net.
The goal was the reward for the visitors' continued pressure and they had ample opportunity to prevent the nervy finish, Foden's off-balance pass not quite reaching Haaland for a tap-in and Ilkay Gundogan narrowly misjudging Kyle Walker's cross.
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But City, for all their dominance, were made to rue their missed chances and were reduced to last-ditch attempts as they scrambled for a late winner.
Kevin de Bruyne had seven attempts at goal but found his radar to be off target as City failed to capitalise on any momentum gathered from their victory over title rivals Arsenal on Wednesday.
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How's this for a stat: City have now dropped 15 away points this season, compared with 11 in total last term.
Atmosphere this afternoon 😍 pic.twitter.com/SZbMKSxiya
— Morgan Gibbs-White (@Morgangibbs27) February 18, 2023
Forest take their chance
Forest will have considered themselves lucky to go into half-time trailing by only one goal having seen the majority of the first period played in their own half. They had won four of their past seven matches at home and showed mere glimpses of danger on the counter-attack as City committed bodies forward.
Gibbs-White and Brennan Johnson had chances to break away, with the latter denied by Walker's block before bounding forward again but with no one in support to latch onto his squared ball.
Forest were without centre-backs Scott McKenna and Willy Boly, who picked up injuries last time out, and Steve Cooper's side did not put together any meaningful periods of possession or chances. However, they were patient and ultimately efficient enough to take their opportunity when it finally came, their only shot on target all afternoon.
What are the fans saying?
One City fan told us: "Incredible team performance but costly individual errors that led to us leaving with just one point instead of three. You could tell it was bound to happen after so many missed chances to extend the lead, what matters is travelling to Leipzig to play some great football and get a positive result then focus on the other fixtures. Nothing's decided yet in any competition, so support the team, they'll bounce back."
Another City fan was a lot more concerned. He said: "The manner of that result is more disturbing than the result itself. Foden not squaring it, so selfish. Haaland's dive to a little brush on his shoulder is pathetic. Pep made no subs again when Forest were building up momentum. There was absolutely no threat after Forest equalised."
We also spoke to a number of Forest fans. Charlotte was one of them. She said: "This was a brilliant point. We are now getting really good at home. This form will keep us up."
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Absolute scenes! To hang on and be hard to beat like that then the last 10min turn it on and get a result. Cooper is something different, manager of the season nominee.
— BruzzLightyear (@LightyearBruzz) February 18, 2023
Another Forest fan tweeted: "Absolute scenes! To hang on and be hard to beat like that then the last 10min turn it on and get a result. Cooper is something different. He's a manager of the season nominee."
