Key events
73 min: Garnacho cuts in from his wing and skelps a wild, wild shot over the bar. He’s been erratic, but also United’s most dangerous player during this second half.
72 min: Garnacho dances in from the left touchline and is clipped from behind by Williams, who goes into the book. Williams isn’t happy about it – “First one! First one!” – but he was nowhere near the ball and one is enough. The resulting free kick is hoicked into the box. Hojlund can’t get a meaningful header away and it’s an easy claim for Sels.
70 min: From the resulting corner, Garnacho drags a shot wide left.
69 min: Fernandes, quarterbacking from deep, sprays a long diagonal towards Garnacho on the left. Garnacho takes the ball in his stride, while running at full pelt, and enters the box … only for Yates to stick out a toe and deflect his shot wide right of goal. That’s fine football all round.
67 min: Dominguez comes on for Anderson.
66 min: Garnacho is booked for kicking the ball away in a frustrated manner, having been flagged offside.
65 min: … nowt occurs. A long ball blootered forward, and Awoniyi briefly threatens to outmuscle last-man De Ligt, but eventually loses the battle. Staunch defending in the end by De Ligt.
64 min: Garnacho probes down the left and wins a corner. From which …
62 min: Yates is nutmegged by Fernandes and clips his man on the follow-through. He’s lucky not to go into the book. Fernandes makes his feelings on the matter known to officialdom.
60 min: Moreno barges his way down the left touchline before sending Awoniyi clear on the overlap. A cross is high-kicked behind by Fernandes. Forest preposterously claim a penalty, but they’re not getting one. Nothing comes of the set piece they do have.
59 min: Casemiro’s treading a fine line, though, and so Ruben Amorim replaces him with Eriksen. That’s smart management.
57 min: Casemiro stands in the way of an in-flight Gibbs-White. The home fans want a second yellow, but the referee isn’t minded to spark the tinder box, and instead settles for a brief chat. To be fair to Casemiro, he took a sore whack in the face when challenging his opponent, and that’s probably punishment enough.
55 min: Anderson has the opportunity to take a whack from just outside the United box. Instead he tries to find Awoniyi with an overly elaborate scooped pass, and the ball sails harmlessly out for a goal kick. Forest have been better in attack since the restart.
53 min: Dorgu skittles Williams, just to the right of the United box. No free kick. Now it’s Williams’ turn to give the nearest official the what-for. It wouldn’t take too much for this match to seriously overheat. On this very subject, Tim Stappard suggests: “I think Bruno’s on a red-card mist tonight.”
51 min: From the resulting free kick, Gibbs-White glides infield from the right and enters the box. He should work Onana at the very least, but lashes a wild shot over the bar. United, who were dozing defensively, get away with a big one.
50 min: Casemiro slides through the back of Yates and is booked. He’s absolutely livid at being carded, and nearly oversteps the mark when arguing his point. His team-mates pull him away from the referee.
49 min: The corner’s half cleared. Williams finds Elanga down the right. A cross whipped to the near stick. Yates heads downwards, only for Onana to claw sensationally out of the bottom-right corner. But the flag goes up for offside, correctly so.
48 min: Yates swivels on a loose ball 25 yards from the United goal. He pearls a shot that’s deflected wide right. Elanga wanders over to take this one.
47 min: Hojlund is immediately into the thick of the action, latching onto Garnacho’s pass down the inside-right channel and sending a low shot goalwards from a tight angle. It’s deflected out for a corner, from which Fernandes finds Casemiro, who aims a header towards the top right. Easy for Sels, but Forest are giving up chances when defending corners.
Forest get the second half underway. United have made a change, sending on Hojlund in place of Ugarte.
Half-time entertainment. Forest, two-time champions of Europe, are a big noise again after a long period in the doldrums. Here’s a tale of another famous club – one that gave the world Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Vieira – rising again after some tough times.
HALF TIME: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Manchester United
United have had the majority of possession, but they couldn’t stop their old boy Anthony Elanga in sprint-dribbling all the way upfield to score a quite stunning goal on the counter. Forest’s bid for Champions League football next season continues apace.
45 min +6: Fernandes rolls a pass, left to right, across the face of the Forest box, inviting Casemiro to have a dig. Casemiro catches the shot well, but it’s way off target to the left. The home fans enjoyed that.
45 min +4: Garnacho powers his way down the right and threatens to burst clear … only for Milenkovic to step across and intervene with a perfectly-timed tackle. “Thanks to Steve Pye for that great 80’s blog,” begins Justin Kavanagh. “I never knew about Gordon McQueen punching Gary Bailey in the face at the City Ground. The blue-eyed blond Scotsman wasn’t for being bossed by a posh boy, I suppose. So today’s equivalent would be what, De Ligt clocking Onana? If I was Peter Oh, I’d add something here about the Dutch man’s weight class, but there’s another open goal I’ve missed. The Garry Birtles of the MBM, that’s me.”
45 min +2: The free kick’s sent into the United box. Morato aims a looping header towards the top-left corner. Onana plucks it out of the air just before it crosses the line.
45 min +1: … and probably more, as De Ligt goes crashing into Awoniyi, conceding a foul and hurting himself in the process. It takes De Ligt a while to pick himself back up.
45 min: There will be six additional first-half minutes.
44 min: … and now Fernandes has a nibble at Yates’ ankle. The United captain may be in one-more-and-you’re-booked territory. Nothing too dramatic yet, but there’s a little bit of niggle in this match now.
43 min: Ugarte tries to scrap his way down the right but is shoved off the ball. He wants a free kick but isn’t getting one. He waves his arms about in the theatrical style.
41 min: Fernandes and Yates get involved in some petulant shoving. The captains, folks, two grown-ups. The referee reminds them of their age.
40 min: Forest also make a tactical change, sacrificing Danilo for a third central defender in Morato. United have been on top, despite the scoreline, so there’s Nuno’s response.
39 min: Moreno comes on for the stricken Aina.
38 min: … but no, he can’t put any weight on his leg and is helped down the tunnel. His evening is over. Forest down to ten men for now. It’s like the 1959 FA Cup final all over again.
37 min: Aina doesn’t look particularly comfortable. He takes a while to gather himself up.
36 min: Aina goes down and requires some treatment. Meanwhile here’s a stat courtesy of TNT Sports: in scoring the goal, Elanga covered 85 metres of the pitch in nine seconds.
