Nicolas Dominguez’s header saw ten-men Nottingham Forest snatch a 1-1 draw against Brentford at the City Ground.
Dominguez headed in an equalising goal from substitute, Harry Toffolo’s cross to earn Forest a point in a game where they dominated.
Christian Nørgaard had put Thomas Frank’s Bees ahead in the 58th minute from Mathias Jensen’s free kick, after Forest’s Moussa Niakhate was red carded for a foul on Yoane Wissa two minutes earlier.
Forest now sit 11th in the league table whilst Brentford remain in 13th position.
With both teams sat firmly in midfield and coming into this game off the back of defeats in their last outings, many pundits anticipated this game to be close but Forest started brightly with an early free kick which was cleared.
Brentford howver couldn’t handle Forest’s early high-energy intensity and briefly fell behind in the eighth minute, as Taiwo Awoniyi flicked in from Murillo’s knockdown header after Anthony Elanga had won a corner kick.
Video Assistant Referee (VAR) however adjudged Awoniyi offside with his left foot and disallowed the goal, much to Brentford’s relief as the Bees found themselves second-best in the opening half-hour.
Mark Flekken however helped to keep the score goalless as he squeezed Elanga in the 24th minute, which forced the ex Manchester United winger to fire wide of the bottom right corner.
Brentford’s best chance of the entire first half came in the 28th minute as Keane Lewis Potter latched onto Aaron Hickey’s through ball, only for Murillo to crucially intercept and flick behind for a corner which came to nothing.
Forest in fact looked so comfortable for much of the opening 55 minutes that goalkeeper, Matt Turner was caught dawdling seven minutes into the second half by Wissa and intercepted, only for Willy Boly to clear a loose ball which got away from Wissa’s reach.
Brentford eventually forced a rash error from Forest as Niakhate hacked Wissa to ground in the 56th minute, with a desperate tackle on Wissa’s back leg which earned the Senegalese defender a red card.
Niakhate’s red card soon looked to had proved costly two minutes later as Nørgaard nodded in from Jensen’s free-kick, despite looking offside but his goal was eventually awarded after a VAR review.
Forest responded with a double substitution as Elanga and Hudson-Odoi were benched for Morgan Gibbs-White and Harry Toffolo in the 60th minute.
Steve Cooper’s gamble soon paid off five minutes later as Toffolo broke forward up the left and curled in a powerful cross, from which Dominguez thumped a dinking header in beyond Flekken’s reach to restore parity on just his second start for the club.
Both teams pushed for a late winner despite various substitutions but Brentford went close in the 89th minute on a counter attack, as Mbeumo broke forward only for Gibbs-White to make a crucial block to force an eventually cleared corner.
Fourth official, Craig Pawson – who replaced the suspended Darren England due to the latter’s VAR error in Tottenham’s win over Liverpool, determined that there would be 13 minutes of injury-time.
Forest went closest to a late winner as Chris Wood headed wide from Divock Origi’s 96th minute cross but eventually neither team broke the deadlock.
Boly then headed wide of the bottom-left corner from Gibbs-White’s 100th minute free-kick in another injury-time opportunity for the hosts.
The draw meant that Forest moved up to 11th in the table on goal difference from Fulham, whilst Brentford stay 13th.
What’s Next?
Forest head to Crystal Palace in Saturday Night Football on 7 October at 5:30pm BST live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Brentford meanwhile face a tricky trip to a struggling Manchester United at Old Trafford earlier that afternoon in a 3pm BST kick-off.
Teams
Nottingham Forest: Matt Turner, Serge Aurier, Willy Boly, Moussa Niakhate, Murillo, Ibrahim Sangare (Kouyate 77′), Orel Mangala, Anthony Elanga (Gibbs-White 61′), Nicolas Dominguez (Origi 80′), Callum Hudson-Odoi (Toffolo 60′), Taiwo Awoniyi (Wood 81′)
Substitutes: Odysseas Vlachodimos, Joe Worrall, Cheikhou Kouyate, Morgan Gibbs-White, Chris Wood, Andrey Santos, Harry Toffolo, Divock Origi, Gonzalo Montiel
Brentford: Mark Flekken, Kristoffer Ajer (Roerslev 89′), Nathan Collins, Ethan Pinnock, Aaron Hickey (Ghoddos 69′), Christian Norgaard, Mathias Jensen (Onyeka 69′), Vitaly Janelt (Olakigbe 89′), Keane Lewis-Potter (Maupay 75′), Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa
Substitutes: Thomas Strakosha, Neal Maupay, Zanka, Saman Ghoddos, , Frank Onyeka, Mads Roerslev, Yehor Yarmolyuk, Michael Olakigbe, Ethan Brierley
Referee: Paul Tierney
Leave a Reply