Liverpool’s Last-Gasp Victory Overshadowed by Woeful Performance
Liverpool secured a dramatic late win against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, but manager Arne Slot admitted the performance was far from satisfactory. The Reds boss labelled the first half as “the worst we’ve played,” a sentiment echoed by former Liverpool captain Jamie Carragher, who described the opening 45 minutes as a “horror show.”
Despite being outplayed for large portions of the match, Liverpool snatched all three points thanks to Alexis Mac Allister’s decisive strike deep into stoppage time. This late heroics came after Mac Allister had a goal disallowed by VAR just minutes earlier.
Slot acknowledged that his team did not deserve the victory, having been thoroughly outplayed by a determined Forest side. However, he felt the team was due some good fortune after experiencing numerous instances this season where they had been on the wrong end of results despite strong performances.
“The first half was really poor, the worst we’ve played until now, I think,” Slot stated. “But the second half was much better, we controlled the game much more.” He added, “The performance was, especially in the first half, not as good as we’ve had so many times this season. But we’ve been on the wrong side of the score after a good performance far too many times and today, I think we got more than we deserved. A draw would have been a fairer result than for us to win it.”
The match concluded in a flurry of late drama. Mac Allister’s winning goal arrived in the sixth minute of added time. Earlier, in the 89th minute, his initial effort was chalked off by VAR. The sequence of play involved a save by Stefan Ortega from Hugo Ekitike’s header, with Ola Aina attempting to clear the rebound. The ball ricocheted off Mac Allister and into the net. However, VAR intervened, ruling that the ball had struck his elbow, and the goal was disallowed.
Slot expressed his cautious approach to celebrations when VAR is involved. “Since VAR is there, I always struggle to celebrate too much if I think there might be something going on,” he explained. “You never know, if a ball is hit to a body, where it ends up. And apparently it ended up on his arm. So it was disallowed. So then my emotions were, ‘OK, still not everything that could have gone against us this season has happened yet. Still one more to go’. But maybe fortune has changed as two or three minutes later, we thought we scored the winner again. They took a long time to check it, but this time, the referee pointed at a kick-off, which meant we won the game.”
Pre-Match Setback and Future Outlook
Liverpool’s preparations for the match were disrupted before kick-off when Florian Wirtz was withdrawn from the starting line-up due to back pain experienced during the warm-up.
Slot downplayed the severity of the issue, stating, “We don’t think it’s very serious, but he felt his back too much during the warm-up to start, he wasn’t able to to be 100 per cent or even close to 100 per cent.” He further elaborated on the demands of the Premier League: “After being in this league for six, seven or eight months, he now understands that no matter how rich you are on the ball, that you need to be 100 per cent at his level, so we decided not to play him. We hope and expect that he will be able to be with us again next week, but you never know how things work out.”
Forest Boss’s Frustration
The defeat left new Nottingham Forest manager Vitor Pereira “angry with football.” The Portuguese tactician, in his first Premier League match since taking the reins at the City Ground, had seen his side press Liverpool relentlessly, creating a high-intensity encounter.
“I’m frustrated, frustrated inside, angry with football,” Pereira admitted. “But it’s time to keep the mentality, to come back stronger and with confidence to face the future. The score, for me, was very, very unfair, but this is football. We need to keep the good things for the next game to rest and to prepare everyone.”
