As this game ticked into the 97th minute – or as Arne Slot put it, the extra time of extra time – Liverpool snatched victory with Alexis Mac Allister feasting on a loose ball in the Nottingham Forest six-yard box. If it felt like a touch of deja vu, that was because just before stoppage time it was Mac Allister who hurtled off celebrating what would have been a bizarre winner.
After Stefan Ortega pawed away Hugo Ekitiké’s header from Rio Ngumoha’s feathery dinked cross with his right glove, the Forest defender Ola Aina sought to clear the danger once and for all. But he inadvertently smashed his clearance against Mac Allister, who turned his back on the ball and it cannoned off his elbow and into the back of the Forest net. The intervention of the video assistant referee, Paul Tierney, extended the at least five minutes of added time.
Liverpool reset and seized their final chance to trouble Forest. Joe Gomez, a late substitute, appeared to be lining up a long throw into the box but elected to locate Dominik Szoboszlai infield. Szoboszlai, faced with Nicolás Domínguez about 30 yards from goal, promptly eliminated the Forest midfielder, jinking left and then right to buy himself room to make an angle for a right-footed cross, one last throw of the dice. Lurking at the back post, Virgil van Dijk headed the ball across goal and while Murillo, facing his own goal, somehow hooked the ball away, Mac Allister was there to hammer in from close range. Another VAR check cleared Van Dijk for offside, to the relief of Slot and agony of Forest.
Liverpool had smuggled three points to leave Vítor Pereira numb in his first league game in charge. Slot acknowledged that the victory – which moved his side level on points with Chelsea, who stumbled to a draw against Burnley, and Manchester United, who visit Everton on Monday – flattered them. Forest were floored, Neco Williams lying on the turf as Liverpool partied at the death, the away dugout emptying into the technical area, the visiting support going ballistic. “I think we got more than we deserved,” Slot said. “A draw would’ve been a fairer result.”
For so long it seemed this would prove a missed opportunity for Liverpool against opponents teetering above the drop zone. Maybe that would be underplaying Pereira’s impressive impact, his side backing up a memorable 3-0 win at Fenerbahce on Thursday with a promising performance here. The Forest head coach felt compelled to ride with the momentum gained from Istanbul, naming an unchanged team despite not returning from Turkey until Friday afternoon. Strangely it seemed Liverpool were the side feeling the aftereffects of a long trip, despite last playing eight days before. In the end, maybe that advantage of mental and physical freshness played a part.
Slot’s side were abysmal in the first half, registering two shots, one of which was blocked and the other off target, while they had only three touches in the opposition box. Slot did not dress it up, telling his players it was the worst half of his tenure.
The Dutchman said: “I know these players can do better so I tried to give them a bit of energy: ‘They [Forest] played on Thursday, a difficult away game so maybe they will run out of energy and we, for sure, cannot have run out of energy yet.’ I pointed to our second half against [Manchester] City as well, that we are able, after a first half that is not up to our standards, to play better in the second.”
Confidence was flowing through the veins of the Forest players, all the while Liverpool were disjointed. The visitors struggled to recover from Florian Wirtz pulling out of the warm‑up with a back problem, Curtis Jones taking his place. If anything typified the upturn in mood at Forest it was the sight of Murillo, who opened the scoring in style in midweek, pushing to the front of the queue for a free-kick from the edge of the box, or perhaps his centre-back partner Nikola Milenkovic leathering a speculative strike at goal from 25 yards seconds before the half-time whistle.
Liverpool improved after the break, though they had set a low bar. They stitched together their first discernible moments of quality in the 53rd minute, Cody Gakpo cutting inside off the left flank and floating a cross towards Mohamed Salah, who was hovering at the back post. Salah cushioned a header down for Jones, whose volley was blocked by Ortega. Until the final moments of stoppage time, it was Liverpool’s only other effort on target and Salah contributed little else before being replaced by the 17-year-old Ngumoha, the catalyst for Mac Allister’s disallowed goal.
Then, in the seventh minute of stoppage time Mac Allister was again in the right place to fire in the winner. Pereira was naturally deflated but remains adamant he can keep Forest above the dotted line. With 11 league games to play, the next at Brighton on Sunday, Forest are two points above West Ham, who occupy the final relegation place. “I am very confident,” he said. “I am frustrated inside, I am angry with football, but it’s time to come back stronger and with confidence to face the future. If we keep this mentality, ambition and organisation we will get points, for sure.”
