Nottingham Forest were booed as they lost 1-0 to Braga after an incredible 54 seconds, including a penalty save from Morgan Gibbs-White and an own goal from Ryan Yates.
The result left Nottingham Forest’s chances of finishing in the top eight of the Europa League up to chance ahead of their final game against Ferencvaros, with Sean Dyche’s side now three points out of the top eight. Elliott Anderson received a red card in the final minute for dissent against Portugal, forcing him to miss a must-win match.
Braga needed to do little to win the match, not needing a single shot on target to cross the goal line, while Forest missed a penalty and scored an own goal in the same match, becoming the second team in the Europa League to have a player sent off.
When James McAtee was dragged inside the area by Gabri Martinez, Forest had a chance to make everyone forget about their tepid first half, which saw just one shot on target.
Ironically, the shot came from Gibbs-White, who had seen Lukas Hornicek save a free-kick. Braga’s keeper did the same in the second half, making the correct guess to prevent a poor penalty.
With the combination of Ricardo Orta and Fran Navarro, Braga quickly overwhelmed their opponents. Orta sent a cross into the area and Yates, unable to find his footing, dragged the ball over his own goal line.
As Forest held their breath, Dyche’s decision to make seven changes will once again be questioned, as was the case in his team’s FA Cup defeat to Wrexham. However, with injuries to Igor Jesus and Chris Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi not registered for the competition, it became clear that Forest would be without a number nine.
Callum Hudson-Odoi and Neco Williams made a triple change in addition to Anderson and helped Forest improve, but their development was not enough.
Dan Ndoye was shown a yellow card after being brought down by Joao Moutinho in the area, and there were calls for another penalty in the closing stages, but VAR ruled against Forest and Gibbs-White was denied a chance to recover until next week’s game against Crunch.
Yates: You have to raise your hand.
Nottingham Forest captain Ryan Yates told TNT Sports:
“It’s very disappointing. I think we controlled most of the game. Obviously (we’re playing) a very good team away from home.
“I thought we held them back. First of all, they didn’t have a chance.
“We had a chance to make a breakthrough, but we didn’t have it, and unfortunately we made a mistake on the other end and couldn’t get a foothold in the game after that.
“That’s football. I think you get a chance and you don’t take it and you get punished. We had to put our hands up and we should have done better. We created some better chances but unfortunately it wasn’t our night.”
Daish: One minute of madness cost us.
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche told TNT Sports.
“It was a crazy minute in a game where we had never been in trouble before, we had never really dominated as much as we would have liked.
“We weren’t able to put them ahead as much as we had hoped. Obviously we don’t have a recognized centre-forward so that could be difficult. We missed the penalty, but it can happen.”
“But then the reaction is that we’re not good enough for the next minute or so and we lose the game with a really poor goal.
“We got drawn into playing a little bit slow, I mean the pitch was slow.Obviously the weather is nobody’s fault.
“We got drawn into slow play. It didn’t affect the backline as much as we would have liked. But of course we’re going to get a penalty. It’s a one-ended game where you think we sealed it.”
“We weren’t dominating the game. We had a good feel for the game. At that point we were minimizing their chances and we didn’t have many.
“And then there’s another penalty shout. It could be there. I’ve seen them awarded. It’s against us and, to be honest, it’s frustrating from there.”
