Forest and Liverpool shared the points at The City Ground with a 1-1 draw on Tuesday night, with Chris Wood opening the scoring early on before Diogo Jota equalised at the 66th minute mark.
Nuno made one change to the side that beat Wolves 3-0 away last time out in the Premier League, with Ryan Yates, the only player starting who faced Luton Town in the FA Cup on Saturday, replacing Nico Domínguez.
Forest raced to the perfect start in a deafening City Ground, breaking quickly and allowing Anthony Elanga to play an inch-perfect ball through from centrally to Chris Wood, who calmly slotted past Alisson to give The Reds the lead in the eighth minute and his 13th of the campaign.
The Reds then sought to double their lead, Murillo firing from outside of the box just wide of the target after he nicked the ball high up in the Liverpool half, before Elliot Anderson weaved through the visitors’ defence and found Callum Hudson-Odoi, but his deflected shot was easily caught by Alisson.
Murillo then was called into action in the defensive half, pulling out some brilliant one-on-one defending against Luis Díaz, who looked to break quickly after a Forest long-throw, but our Brazilian centre-half intercepted his pass, forcing the ball wayward and to a Forest man.
The Reds ended the half prying for a second, prompting the Liverpool defence to stay firm and finish the first half with only a one goal deficit.
HALF TIME: Forest 1-0 Liverpool
The second half started off cagey, neither team wanting to put their goalkeeper in jeopardy, Murillo getting involved once again and making two brilliant tackles to force the visitors back to their own half.
Mohamed Salah then had his first real effort in the box, half-volleying a dinked ball from Virgil van Dijk just wide of the target.
Gibbs-White, Anderson and Hudson-Odoi then played some exquisite one-touch football at the visitors’ right corner flag, brilliantly winning a free kick in a dangerous area, but the delivery just avoided a Forest head and went out for a goal kick.
Diogo Jota then equalised for the hosts, heading in a corner delivered by Kostas Tsimikas past Sels just before the 70th minute.
Sels then had to make another important stop to deny Jota once again as he cut inside the Forest defence and fired low, before Ola Aina make a crucial goal-line stop to deny Szoboszlai.
After some solid last-ditch defending from Forest as Liverpool sought a winner, Sels made an outstanding save to parry over Salah’s curling effort, and Ola Aina had to make another last-gasp block on the line to deny Jota again.
Our ‘keeper then denied Cody Gakpo too, whose curling effort from just outside the box looked destined for the bottom corner, before the Belgian tipped it wide, which proved to be the final action of the second half.
The Reds return to Premier League action once again at The City Ground against Southampton on Sunday, and this result leaves Forest second in the league as of Tuesday night, six points off tonight’s opposition.
FULL TIME: Forest 1-1 Liverpool
Forest (4-2-3-1): Sels; Aina, Milenković, Murillo, Williams (Moreno 90’); Yates (Domínguez 76’), Anderson; Elanga, Gibbs-White (Morato 90’), Hudson-Odoi (Jota Silva 83’); Wood (Awoniyi 90’)
Unused Substitutes: Miguel, Boly, Ward-Prowse, Sosa
Bookings: Gibbs-White (42’), Yates (53’)
Goal: Wood (8’)
Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konaté (Jota 66’), van Dijk, Robertson (Tsimikas 65’); Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Szoboszlai, Gakpo; Díaz (Jones 75’)
Unused Substitutes: Kelleher, Quansah, Bradley, Endo, Elliott, Chiesa
Bookings: Díaz (70’)
Goal: Jota (66’)