No big chances, one goal anyway
For 87 minutes, neither side carved out anything close to a real chance. Nothing for Nottingham Forest, nothing for Leeds United. The City Ground was starting to get restless.
Then Anton Stach popped up. 88th minute. 0-1.
The German midfielder gave Leeds all three points in their Premier League opener on Saturday afternoon. A goal out of nowhere in a match that had promised next to nothing. Forest never really recovered.
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Forest had the ball, not the answers
55% possession. 307 completed passes to 231. On paper, the home side were running the show.
On the pitch, they managed two shots on target. That was it. Leeds hit the target three times and only needed one of them.
The xG tells the same story, 0.65 to 0.49. Two teams who barely troubled each other for an hour and a half, until one of them took the hit and took it badly.
Deep into stoppage time, Arnaud Kalimuendo came on for Murillo. A striker for a defender, with one minute left. That pretty much summed up the desperation of the moment.
Back here on Tuesday
The hard part comes next. Forest and Leeds meet again at the City Ground on Tuesday 25 August at 20:00, this time in the Carabao Cup.
Three days to digest that. Three days to plot some kind of response against the same opponents, on the same pitch, with the same issues still hanging around in front of goal.
Referee Jones handed out just three yellow cards in total, two of them to Forest. This never boiled over. It was simply long, tight, and it ended in the most frustrating way possible for the Tricky Trees.
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