Nottingham Forest dropped into the bottom three as relegation rivals Leicester City and Everton battled to a 2-2 draw on Monday night.
The Reds suffered heartbreak against Brentford on Saturday as late goals from Ivan Toney and Josh Dasilva overturned Taiwo Awoniyi’s opener. Leicester’s draw with Everton at the King Power Stadium saw the Foxes leave the relegation zone at Forest’s expense and jump up to 16th on goal difference; though the draw keeps both teams firmly within Forest’s grasp.
The first half saw Everton take an early lead as Dominic Calvert-Lewin converted from the spot but that was short-lived as Caglar Soyuncu produced a cool finish seven minutes later to level the scores. A frantic opening 45 minutes continued as Jamie Vardy raced through to give the Foxes lead, but both sides could scarcely believe that it remained 2-1 at the interval.
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James Maddison saw his penalty saved after a handball from Michael Keane, while both Vardy and Calvert-Lewin spurned golden chances before the break.
The high-stakes game continued at a frenetic pace in the second half. Dwight McNeil’s cross made its way to Alex Iwobi and the Nigeria international was able to steer the ball into the corner. Plenty of shots followed, with goalkeepers Jordan Pickford and Daniel Iversen both producing heroic saves.
Here’s what Forest fan had to say about the crucial game in the fight for survival on social media:
@bullyphil: That’ll do. Iverson kept Leicester in that. Good to see that it’s not just us who concede terrible goals.
@4ndsim: Still plenty of fight on show from Leicester and Everton. Going to the wire.
@maxbscott: Best possible result for NFFC tonight. Yesterday’s result was tough to take, a real gut-wrencher. But on recent performances, there’s still a strong argument to say there are 3 worse sides than Forest.
@OllyBausor: We seem to be the only club in the bottom 5 behind the players and importantly the Manager. Our support, especially at home will be a major factor! We need to make sure goal difference doesn't play a part, which is against us Vs the others above. Keep... The faith!
@ianbrown1Ø: The other teams can’t do enough for us god do we need to win on Monday.
@Forest_Review: Perfect result for us. Make no bones about it though, next Monday at home to Southampton is a must win and it should be in hour hands. With the results this weekend, and the remaining fixtures for the other teams with us, 4 points could be enough as stupid as that sounds.
@_Shells1: So tight at the bottom got to win next Monday.
@andybutts1964: Our goal difference could be the deciding factor, just saying.
@zippster14: Great result for us!! We gotta do the magic next Monday!!
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