Nottingham Forest’s recruitment has felt scattergun at the best of times in the past couple of years but Callum Hudson-Odoi’s arrival had a more obvious backstory. He worked with Steve Cooper, Nuno Espírito Santo’s predecessor, when England won the Under-17 World Cup in 2017 and so Cooper was influential in luring Hudson-Odoi, once a prodigious talent, to the City Ground.
Cooper may have departed but here Hudson-Odoi displayed some of the rich promise that elevated him into the Chelsea first team as a teenager, his fine strike on the cusp of half-time securing a point at Bournemouth, who ended the game with 10 men after Philip Billing was sent off with six minutes of normal time to play. Billing’s straight red card, for clipping Hudson-Odoi on the achilles on halfway, seemed harsh on first viewing but was undoubtedly crude. Nuno insisted it was unnecessary.
“It’s obvious that it was a red card,” Nuno said. “With all respect to Billing, I hope he understands that there are other ways to stop the game, without compromising the player.”.
One of their three deadline‑day arrivals, Matz Sels, was thrust straight into action. Giovanni Reyna and Rodrigo Ribeiro arrived from the bench. Forest moved for Sels to solve their goalkeeping weak spot this season, with Matt Turner relegated to the bench alongside Odysseas Vlachidimos. In fact, including Wayne Hennessey, Forest travelled south with four goalkeepers in their ranks. Five, if you count Nuno, who won the Champions League with Porto under José Mourinho in 2004.
“It was not an easy decision – it is always hard to change goalkeeper – but what we need and what we are looking for is stability, confidence and Matz gave that to us,” Nuno said.
The foul count – 31 in total – told the story of this forgettable stop‑start contest. Taiwo Awoniyi fluffed a chance to cancel out Justin Kluivert’s opener, slipping at the crucial moment, and Ryan Yates also failed to truly test Neto in the Bournemouth goal after swivelling inside the box. Sels was largely untroubled.
“There were no big chances for any team, the rhythm of the game was really slow – there were a lot of interruptions,” the Bournemouth head coach, Andoni Iraola, said. “It was not a good game to watch. The game was decided by set pieces, basically.”
It would be unfair to pin too much blame on Sels for Bournemouth’s fifth-minute opener but the goalkeeper failed to command his area at a corner. Antoine Semenyo occupied Sels, Luis Sinisterra glanced Lewis Cook’s delivery goalwards at the front post and Kluivert helped it in on the goal-line.
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Hudson-Odoi’s equaliser, on the cusp of half-time, is more likely to stick in the memory. Murillo kept alive a Morgan Gibbs-White free‑kick and then Hudson-Odoi powered past Adam Smith and used Illia Zabarnyi as a mannequin, bending a fine right-foot strike into the bottom corner.
Nuno cut a frustrated figure on the sidelines and was booked soon after the hour for asking the referee to book Alex Scott after the Bournemouth substitute collided with Nicolás Domínguez. By then, this game had deteriorated into an attritional contest. “Both teams did not play well in the second half,” Nuno said. “It was not a beautiful game; very physical, very intense.”
