Nuno, Marinakis and the day it felt Forest let Champions League football slip away

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This should have been a day of celebration. It felt anything but.

Nottingham Forest secured the point that confirmed their return to European football after three decades. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side will be the first to represent the club in such company since Frank Clark guided them to the UEFA Cup quarter-final in 1996.

After consecutive seasons fighting against Premier League relegation, it is a remarkable achievement. But, for now, the prospect of Europa League or Conference League football looks like a consolation prize.

It is not — and the scale of what Forest have achieved will surely be appreciated. But it feels as though their aspirations to reach the Champions League — a tournament they won in 1979 and 1980 when it was called the European Cup — are being torn to shreds.

Their hopes of a top-five finish are rapidly evaporating, all in the unforgiving glare of the public spotlight. It had, for so long, promised to be a fairytale story, with Forest having climbed into the top four in December, only to slide away to seventh place on the back of one win in six Premier League games.

In different circumstances, there should have been celebrations at the City Ground to mark the landmark moment of European qualification.

Instead, the only fireworks were provided by the sight of the club’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, making his way onto the City Ground pitch to engage in an animated conversation with his head coach after the final whistle. It was an unusual, unexpected and some might argue ill-judged scene.

Nuno said in the aftermath that the source of Marinakis’ ire had been a ‘miscommunication’ that saw Forest play through stoppage time effectively with 10 men, with Forest having made their final substitution, immediately after seeing Taiwo Awoniyi pick up an injury. Marinakis later posted on Instagram: “Everybody — coaching staff, players, supporters and including myself — we were frustrated around the injury of Taiwo and the medical staff’s misjudgement on Taiwo’s ability to continue the game. This is natural, this is a demonstration of the passion we feel for our club.”

But even so, it was a conversation that might have better served both men had it played out behind the scenes rather than in front of the Sky Sports television cameras.

Any frustration the Greek shipping magnate felt was understandable. His dismay and disappointment were shared by the majority of the 30,000 people within the stadium.

Marinakis is an emotional character, a man who had developed a habit of standing in the City Ground tunnel after games to individually hug the Forest players as they made their way into the home dressing room following victories.

But the last time he could do that was on April 1, when Manchester United were beaten 1-0 here. Since then, Forest have suffered home defeats against Everton (1-0) and Brentford (2-0) and now a draw with Leicester City that felt every bit as painful as a loss.

This was meant to be a day when Forest fans got to celebrate their rise, in stark contrast to the demise of their two biggest East Midlands rivals. Leicester’s relegation back to the Championship was confirmed last month and Southampton’s draw with Manchester City on Saturday ensured Derby County’s points tally of 11 in the 2007-08 season remains the worst in Premier League history.

Instead, by the end, Forest owed a debt of thanks to Matz Sels that the outcome here was not worse. The Belgium goalkeeper has kept 13 clean sheets, the most in the Premier League.

But without the injured Murillo, Forest’s defence did not have its usual level of resolve. A long throw into the box led to Leicester taking the lead, and their late equaliser came after an uncharacteristic moment of confusion at the back from Forest.

There were moments where Forest looked more like their old selves, with Anthony Elanga’s free-kick delivery perfectly picking out Morgan Gibbs-White to head home to make it 1-1, while Chris Wood made up for missing two decent chances by emphatically heading home a third opportunity.

It was the New Zealand international’s 20th goal of the campaign, but ultimately, Forest paid a price for their nerves and indecision at the other end — and for that miscommunication over Awoniyi.

“The good thing in life is that time helps; time takes care of all the grief and disappointment. So we have to give time, we have to recover the players and make sure we are in a better place at West Ham,” Nuno said when asked how his team might shake off their recent frustrations in the two decisive remaining games. “We have to make sure we find the solutions in our final two games, because anything can still happen.”

Nuno is not wrong. Forest sit a point behind Chelsea and Aston Villa, who are fifth and sixth, and three points behind fourth-placed Manchester City.

For so long, in the broader world of football, some might have considered the sight of Forest in the top three to be like seeing an elephant up a tree: nobody was quite sure how they got there, only believing they would fall eventually.

In their two remaining games, at West Ham United and against Chelsea at home, Nuno’s side still have an opportunity to prove their doubters wrong and haul themselves back up into the Champions League places. But if they are to do so, their first challenge should be to overcome any doubt that has crept into their own minds as the season reaches its finale.

(Top photo: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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