Nottingham Forest visited Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon to take on Manchester United with Head Coach Steve Cooper making two changes to the starting lineup that emerged victorious against Sheffield United last week, with Ola Aina and Ryan Yates entering the fold in place of Neco Williams and Orel Mangala.
Manchester United started well, forcing our summer signing, US international stopper, Matt Turner into the action inside a minute when he was only able to spill Antony’s left-footed curled shot for a corner.
Brennan Johnson was able to clear the danger from the Reds penalty area from the resultant corner. His clearance was met by the head of Morgan Gibbs-White who was able to find the oncoming run of the in-form Nigerian, Taiwo Awoniyi who took the ball from inside of his own-half and coolly slotted the ball past Andre Onana to give Forest the lead inside 90 seconds of kick-off.
The Reds troubled the hosts again inside 4 minutes after the marauding Johnson was fouled on the outside right. Gibbs-White whipped in a delightful cross fand the ball cannoned off the head of the unexpecting Willy Boly and rifled into the Manchester United goal to give Forest a 2-0 lead much to the delight of the travelling fans who jubilantly celebrated the early lead.
Turner was called into action again in the 17th minute when he was able to get down to Bruno Fernandes long-range dipping effort and turn the ball away from danger. However, he was only able to clear the ball away from immediate danger, but moments later Marcus Rashford was on hand to fire the ball back across the six-yard box and found the feet of the Danish international, Christian Eriksen who was able to beat Scott McKenna to turn the ball home to reduce the Forest lead to one goal.
Manchester United should’ve levelled the score inside half an hour as the players struggled to battle the treacherous conditions when Serge Aurier slipped trying to avert the danger of a United corner. The ball arrived to an unmarked Casemiro, who headed wide from 3-yards out much to the disbelief of the Stretford End.
Forest dug in deep and defended valiantly under a spell of sustained pressure from Manchester United leading up to the half-time interval with special credit for the goal scorer Willy Boly, who repeatedly put his body on the line and won every aerial duel that came his way.
Half Time: Manchester United 1-2 Nottingham Forest
Forest started the second half as brightly as they did the first and created their first chance within a minute of the restart when Awoniyi was able to power into a good position and find the feet of Gibbs-White who skipped past his man and turn the ball back across the United penalty area, but the ball was well cleared from the United defence.
Manchester United drew level in the 52nd minute when a well worked free-kick routine saw Rashford’s ball into the box, turned back across goal by the head of Bruno Fernandes, and Casemiro was able to bundle the ball over the line from close range.
Moments later Turner saw himself called into action once again as he spectacularly pushed Antony’s shot from the edge of the area out for a corner when it seemed destined to find the top corner.
Forest were reduced to ten men when captain, Joe Worrall was shown a straight red card for bringing down Bruno Fernandes on the edge of the area as he attempted to latch on to a ball over the top of the Reds defence. Worrall remained on the field for a lengthy VAR consultation, but the decision stood, and Forest were forced to play the remaining twenty minutes a man down.
Things went from bad to worse for Forest when Danilo brought down Rashford inside the area. Bruno Fernandes stepped up to take the penalty and tucked the ball past Turner, who dived the right way into the bottom left corner of the goal.
In a last-ditch attempt to salvage a point, Forest introduced Chris Wood and Anthony Elanga in place of Awoniyi and Danilo for the final ten minutes.
Willy Boly nearly got his second and Forest’s third when Wood picked him out and his speculative effort from just inside the area was tipped around the post by the Cameroonian stopper, Onana.
As the fourth official raised the board to signal 11 minutes of additional time, Elanga sprang into life with the ball on the left flank, delightfully beating his man and fizzing a low ball across the six-yard box that Wood couldn’t quite get on to the end of and the danger was soon averted.
Full Time: Manchester United 3-2 Nottingham Forest
FOREST: Matt Turner; Joe Worrall (C), Scott McKenna (Moussa Niakhaté 56’), Willy Boly; Sérge Aurier, Ola Aina, Ryan Yates, Danilo (Anthony Elanga 81’); Morgan Gibbs-White, Brennan Johnson (Cheikhou Kouyaté 70’), Taiwo Awoniyi (Chris Wood 81’)
Unused Subs: Ethan Horvath, Neco Williams, Remo Freuler, Gonzalo Montiel, Hwang Ui-Jo
Goals: Awoniyi 2’, Boly 4’
Bookings: Aurier 43’, Gibbs-White 45’, Aina 62’, Kouyate 90’
Sent off: Worrall 67’
Manchester United: Andre Onana; Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Diogo Dalot, Raphael Varane (Victor Lindelof 46’), Lisandro Martinez; Casemiro, Christian Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes (C); Antony (Scott McTominay 84’), Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial (Jadon Sancho 60’)
Unused Subs: Dean Henderson, Harry Maguire, Facundo Pellistri, Alvaro Fernandez, Dan Gore, Alejandro Garnacho
Goals: Eriksen 17’, Casemiro 52’, Fernandes 76’ (P)
Bookings: Wan-Bissaka 58’, Rashord 82’, Onana 89’, Fernandes 90’