Key events
Diogo Jota: Having scored his seventh goal against Nottingham Forest tonight, Liverpool’s super-sub is asked what it is about playing them he enjoys so much. “I think it’s just a coincidence,” he tells TNT Sports.
“Obviously I love to score goals and I scored with my first touch today, so that gave the team a bit of momentum. I had two more chances and could have given us the three points but unfortunately I couldn’t.”
Full time: Nottingham Forest 1-1 Liverpool
A terrific and often wonderfully chaotic game of football ends all square, after Liverpool cancelled out Chris Wood’s excellent opener with a goal from Diogo Jota, who along with assist-provider Kostas Tsimikas, had only been on the pitch for 22 seconds before restoring parity for the visitors.
90+7 min: It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable game and a draw seems about fair, even if Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels had a far busier time of it in the second half than the first, making four excellent saves. And that’s how it finishes, as referee Chris Kavanagh signals the end of the game.
90+6 min: Anthony Elanga breaks forward on a Forest counter-attack but is relieved of possession by Trent Alexander-Arnold halfway inside the Liverpool half.
90+4 min: Liverpool win a free-kick about 30 yards from the Forest goal, well left of centre. Tsimikas places the ball and crosses to the far post, but Murillo heads clear. Again. The Brazilian is a rock in the heart of that Forest defence.
90+2 min: Matz Sels gets down to get a strong hand behind a shot from Cody Gakpo that came through a thicket of legs and took a deflection on its way. That’s an outstanding save.
90 min: Forest triple substitution: Morato, Alex Moreno and Taiwo Awoniyi on for Wood, Gibbs-White and Williams. We’ll have seven minutes of added time.
88 min: Matz Sels rides to the rescue again, foiling Mo Salah as the Liverpool talisman tried to place a shot from inside the penalty area into the top corner. From the ensuing corner, Ola Aina is standing at the post and blocks a powerful goalbound Salah drive.
87 min: Nottingham Forest substitution from a few minutes ago that I haven’t got around to telling you about previously: Jota Silva on for Callum Hudson-Odoi.
85 min: Now Forest drive forward and Anthony Elanga squares the ball across the edge of the Liverpool six-yard box from the right. There’s nobody there in a Forest shirt to slot it home and Tsimikas clears for Liverpool. This is such an entertaining game.
84 min: Mo Salah runs on to a long ball over the top from Trent Alexander-Arnold but takes a heavy first touch. Matz Sels is lightning fast off his line to pounce on the ball.
83 min: Szoboszlai tees up Mo Salah for a curler inside the far post but the Egyptian sends his effort ridiculously high and wide. Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota were waiting at the far post for a tap-in if he’d crossed. But he was never going to cross, was he?
81 min: Liverpool have a penalty appeal for a slightly questionable Eliot Anderson challenge on Mo Salah turned down before Dominik Szoboszlai sends a low drive from distance whistling narrowly wide of the right post.
79 min: Forest break upfield with Elanga taking on a backpedalling Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool’s sole remaining centre-half. The Dutchman shepherds Elanga away from goal and calmly relieves him of possession.
77 min: Matz Sels saves brilliantly from Diogo Jota, with a little help from Ola Aina. From seven yards, the Liverpool substitute kicked an Alexander-Arnold cross that broke his way into the ground and it was saved by Sels, who parried it onto the unwitting Aina and away.
76 min: Forest substitution: Nicolas Dominguez on for Ryan Yates.
75 min: Ryan Yates wellies the ball clear from the edge of his own penalty area, putting a stop to Diogo Jota’s ferreting run in the process.
74 min: Liverpool substitution: Curtis Jones comes on for Luis Diaz, who has had a quiet night.
73 min: Elliot Anderson tries to play a low defence-splitting pass into the Liverpool area trying to pick out Gibbs-White or Elanga, but neither of his teammates were on the same wavelength and his pass was overhit.
70 min: Jota goes close to scoring a second for Liverpool, only to be denied by a good Matz Sels save.
68 min: Ibrahima Konate and Andy Robertson were the men who made way in what is arguably the most instantly impactful double-substitution in the history of football. Jota and Tsimikas were on the pitch mere seconds before combining to equalise for Liverpool.
GOAL! Nottingham Forest 1-1 Liverpool (Jota 66)
Liverpool equalise! Just on the pitch as substitutes, Kostas Tsimikas and Diogo Jota combine to equalise for Liverpool. Tsimikas sent in the corner from the right and Jota, arguably the smallest man on the pitch, rose between Murillo and Wood to head home with his first touch of the ball from about five yards out.
65 min: Elanga whips a free-kick everyone was expecting him to cross towards the near post. Alisson punches it clear.
61 min: Elliot Anderson goes to ground after getting accidentally caught in the face by Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was trying to punch the ball back in the direction of the site of a free-kick that had just been awarded against Alexis Mac Allister.
It was a total accident but Trent Alexander-Arnold looks a bit worried. In the VAR bunker, John Brooks tells match referee Chris Kavanagh that it was not serious foul play. Alexander-Arnold apologises to Anderson, who is able to laugh it off.
59 min: I think it’s Murillo who tries a shot from just inside his own half and … well, suffice to say, it won’t be giving Josh Windass or indeed Alisson any sleepless nights.
57 min: Luis Diaz miscontrols a defence-splitting pass from Gravenberch and a half-chance for Liverpool goes to waste.
55 min: Liverpool corner. Andy Robertson plays it short, receives the return pass and then balloons his cross towards the touchline. Trent Alexander-Arnold sprints to retrieve it and sends a cross towards the far post, where Robertson is unable to steer his header from a tight angle on target.
54 min: There’s another free-kick as Alexis Mac Allister is penalised for catching Chris Wood on the ankle with a mistimed challenge. Forest won’t mind the scrappy nature of the early stages of this second half one bit.
53 min: Ryan Yates is booked for wrapping his arms around Luis Diaz and preventing him from turning as the Liverpool player tried to give him the slip.
51 min: Callum Hudson-Odoi cuts inside from the left and shoots from distance but his effort spirals up in the air after taking a deflection off Szoboszlai. Liverpool clear their lines as the ball drops into the penalty area.
49 min: Neco Williams dispossesses Mo Salah as the Egyptian tries to scurry past him with the ball at his feet. It breaks to Ryan Yates a few yards outside the Forest penalty area and he’s fouled by another Ryan: Gravenberch.
48 min: A brief period of Liverpool pressure is alleviated when Ola Aina uncermoniously hoofs the ball down the pitch.
47 min: Liverpool win a free-kick wide on the left and Trent Alexander-Arnold whips the ball into the Forest penalty area. His delivery isn’t great and fails to beat the first man in Elliot Anderson, who heads clear.
46 min: Fun fact: Liverpool had nine shots in the first half, none of which were on target.
Second half: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Liverpool
46 min: Play restarts with Liverpool on the ball and the mellifluous strains of Mull of Kintyre echoing around the City Ground. There are no changes in personnel on either side.
Half-time: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Liverpool
Penned into their own half for the first eight minutes of the game, Forest scored against the run of play after Mo Salah coughed up cheap possession near the halfway line.
Callum Hudson-Odoi got the ball forward to Anthony Elanga, whose inch-perfect pass into the path of Chris Wood allowed the striker to score with what may have been his first touch of the game since he took the kick-off. Forest lead and thus far have been dealing with Liverpool’s threat extremely comfortably.
45 min: The clock ticks towards half-time with Forest leading courtesy of their first and arguably only real chance of note in the game. Liverpool haven’t threatened their hosts’ goal much, having been restricted to potshots from distance or forced wide to send crosses into the box that have been meat and drink for Forest’s central defensive duo, Murillo and Milenkovic. And there’s the whistle for the break …
42 min: Morgan Gibbs-White is booked for angrily demanding that Chris Kavanagh show Dominik Szoboszlai a yellow card after he’d fouled the Forest midfielder.
40 min: A low Alexis Mac Allister drive from distance takes a deflection off Forest skipper Ryan Yates on its way out for a corner. Murillo clears when the inswinger comes into the Forest penalty area.
39 min: Having let the game flow until now, Chris Kavanagh’s patience with players taking liberties starts wearing a bit thin and he awards a series of free-kicks for various shoves and other niggly fouls.
35 min: Back in his own penalty area, Szoboszlai is in the right place to head clear a long throw from Ola Aina. Liverpool break upfield, where Murillo sticks out a foot to prevent Luis Diaz playing Gakpo in behind the Forest defence. That’s a crucial interception.
33 min: Szoboszlai tries to dink the ball towards Gakpo at the far post but overhits his pass and sends the ball sailing wide before waving apologetically towards his Dutch teammate.
30 min: Murillo puts the ball out of play for a Liverpool throw-in deep in Forest territory after Mo Salah had got the better of Neco WIlliams in a one-on-one out by the right touchline. Nothing comes of it.
28 min: A Gakpo cross into the Forest penalty area is met by the head of Dominik Szoboszlai. Jumping alongside him, Neco Williams blocks the Liverpool midfielder’s effort with his own head.
27 min: Neco Williams clears a Cody Gakpo cross into the Forest penalty area with a thumping header. Less than half an hour into this game and this Forest defence currently look well able to deal with anything Liverpool can throw at them.
26 min: The home crowd cheer loudly as a crossfield ball from Trent Alexander-Arnold aimed in the direction of Cody Gakpo sails out of play for a throw-in.
25 min: Salah cuts inside from the right, getting the better of Neco Williams as he does so. His clipped cross to the far post is met by Gakpo, who can’t steer his header on target.