“THANKS to Callum Hudson-Odoi, Forest’s fans can now start to imagine the Champions League theme tune being played at the City Ground next season. Hudson’s Odoi’s winner with seven minutes left proved beyond doubt that Forest now have a brilliant chance of making a long-awaited return to European club football’s top competition. 4 Callum Hudson-Odoi”, — write: www.thesun.co.uk
Hudson’s Odoi’s winner with seven minutes left proved beyond doubt that Forest now have a brilliant chance of making a long-awaited return to European club football’s top competition.
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Callum Hudson-Odoi scored Nottingham Forest’s winner against Man CityCredit: Reuters
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It’s a major boost in their Champions League hopesCredit: GettyWith 10 games left, they are four points clear of CIty. No-one, absolutely no-one, could have imagined this at the start of what is proving to be a dream season at Forest.
Meanwhile, for Pep Guardiola, this was a ninth Premier League loss and his team were truly awful.
In a week which saw Alisson deliver a one-man wondershow away to PSG for Liverpool, fellow Brazilian keeper Ederson was caught out badly at his near post for the Hudson-Odoi goal.
And this came after he made a decent save from the same player earlier in the second half.
So now for Forest, it is home draws with Liverpool and Arsenal followed by this win over City. This is definitely the type of form which gets you a top four or top five spot.
England assistant manager Anthony Barry was here with Thomas Tuchel to name his first squad on Friday and Hudson-Odoi certainly gave himself a chance.
In contrast, City’s Phil Foden had little influence and then looked peed off when he was replaced by Kevin de Bruyne with 21 minutes left.
Yet despite City bringing on both the Belgian midfielder and forward Omar Marmoush, Forest held firm in a similar cat-and-mouse type of game to the 1-1 draw with Arsenal.
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Only on this occasion, they stuck the knife in right at the end and as you could imagine, there were jubilant scenes at the end.
It was certainly a lively ending to an otherwise dismal game which had promised so much but delivered very little.
For much of the game, Guardiola stood on the touchline with both hands on his head although when Hudson-Odoi grabbed the winner, he was sat on the bench and just took a giant swig of water.
At that point, he must have admitted it was something stronger.
For Forest, this was a game which started and finished with a standing ovation.
There was applause in the third minute for club legend Stuart Pearce who is recovering after failing ill on a transatlantic fight and a “get well soon, Stuart” message flashed up on the big screen.
This tribute to the former England no 3 came in the third minute with the home fans singing the name of the ex left-back.
Soon after, as City looked to get off to a flying start, Erling Haaland was understandably baffled when he was not given a corner even though his goal-bound shot, which seemed to be heading towards the bottom corner, was deflected wide by Murillo.
Bernardo SIlva also showed his complete dismay at what was a poor decision by referee Chris Kavanagh.
With Forest struggling to get out of their own half, Nico Gonzalez thumped a shot wide and then delivered an attempt so high and wide it probably ended up in the club shop – but Notts County’s on the other side of the Trent.
City’s first official shot on target, if you do not include the early Haaland strike, came through Jeremy Doku and that was just before half-time
And 30 seconds later, Chris Wood also chipped in with Forest’s only shot on target but this attempted lob sailed into the arms of Ederson.
Forest were better in the second half and they managed the best chance of the game but City keeper Ederson got down low to his left to turn Hudson-Odoi’s shot against the post.
Guardiola made his changes, bringing on Rico Lewis and Mateo Kovacic at first and De Bruyne and Marmoush soon after.
De Bruyne had an immediate chance but lifted his effort into the away end and then hammered a free-kick straight at Matz Sels.
But just when you thought Forest might settle for a point, they turned three points into three.
Morgan Gibbs-White launched a long ball to Hudson-Odoi who was given an incredible amount of time and space by Josko Gvardiol. He then hammered an effort which Ederson should have saved by no-one at the City Ground was complaining.
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Pep Guardiola looks on in frustrationCredit: Alamy
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It was a famous win for ForestCredit: Getty