Sports

Liverpool frustrated by Forest, Man City take late lead over Brentford




Liverpool’s march towards the English Premier League title was halted by stubborn Nottingham Forest with a 1-1 draw between the top two teams on Tuesday, and Manchester City’s comeback was halted by a 2-2 draw with Brentford. Chris Wood put Forest ahead early at the City Ground, but Liverpool dominated almost the entire 97 minutes and got back to level playing field thanks to substitute Diogo Jota’s first touch goal. Only a fine performance from Matz Sels in goal denied the leaders a win, but the point maintained a six-point lead over Forest for Arne Slott’s men, who also have a game in hand.

Forest have won their last seven matches in all competitions to increase the possibility of matching Leicester’s stunning title win in 2015/16.

The in-form Wood stunned the home crowd after just eight minutes when he slotted home Anthony Elanga’s pass.

Liverpool had more than 70 percent of the ball and shot 23 shots on goal, but did not pose a serious threat in front of goal until after the break.

Jota had only entered the field for a few seconds when he nodded in Kostas Tsimikas’ corner kick.

Sales then made a stunning save to deny victory to Jota, Mohamed Salah and Cody Jacobo, while Salah also had a shot at goal cleared off the goal line.

“I couldn’t have asked for more,” Slott said. “The second half was great.

“There are not many teams that can create this many chances against an opponent with such defensive strength. Unfortunately, we were not able to score the second goal.”

Liverpool’s second consecutive league draw opens the door for Arsenal to close the gap at the top to four points when they host Tottenham in the north London derby on Wednesday.

Man City and Chelsea stumbled

Any suggestion that City could return to the title race ended with a late collapse in west London as Brentford scored twice in the final 10 minutes to earn a deserved point.

Phil Foden’s double put City on course for a fourth successive win after just one win in 13 matches.

However, the English champions’ defense was not convincing all night and they were punished when Yoan Wissa and Christian Norgaard scored for the Bees.

Foden’s return to the level that made him crowned the best player in the English Premier League last season was the positive thing for City.

But Pep Guardiola will reflect on the missed opportunity to make up the top four as City remain in sixth place, 12 points off the top.

Foden sent a wonderful touch from Kevin De Bruyne’s pass and then followed the rebound to score his fourth goal in five league matches.

Brentford wasted a host of chances before conceding but finally got some reward for their attacking effort when Wesa scored from a Mads Rorslev cross to become the club’s all-time top scorer in the Premier League.

They completed the comeback in stoppage time when Norgaard’s header was too powerful for Stefan Ortega.

Guardiola said: “We are not (at our best) and we did not make the right decisions.” “It’s okay, this isn’t a good place to come to. Unfortunately, we couldn’t win.”

Fourth-placed Chelsea’s miserable run extended to five league games without a win, but they were grateful for captain Reece James’ stoppage-time goal to salvage a point in a 2-2 draw at home to Bournemouth.

Cole Palmer’s brilliant finish from Nicholas Jackson’s through ball gave Chelsea the perfect start.

But Bournemouth responded with a penalty kick from Justin Kluivert, before Antoine Semenyu put the visitors ahead.

James has endured another injury-plagued season but showed his quality by curling home a free-kick at the death.

West Ham manager Graham Potter enjoyed his first home appearance after defeating Fulham 3-2 at the London Stadium.

Carlos Soler, Tomas Soucek and Lucas Paqueta scored for the Hammers to take Potter’s men above Manchester United and Tottenham into 12th place.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Topics mentioned in this article

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button

Adblock Detected

Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker