Nottingham Forest's recruitment has felt scattered at best in recent years, but Callum Hudson-Odoi's arrival had a more obvious backstory. She worked with Steve Cooper, Nuno Espírito Santo's predecessor, when England won the Under-17 World Cup in 2017, so Cooper was influential in attracting Hudson-Odoi, once a prodigious talent, to the City Ground.
Cooper may be gone, but here Hudson-Odoi showed some of the rich promise that elevated him to Chelsea's first team as a teenager, and his excellent goal on the threshold of half-time secured a point in Bournemouth, who finished the match with 10 men after Philip Billing was sent off with six minutes left in regulation time. Billing's straight red card, for cutting Hudson-Odoi on the Achilles tendon midway, looked harsh at first glance, but it was certainly raw. Nuno insisted it was unnecessary.
“It's obvious it was a red card,” Nuno said. “With all due respect to Billing, I hope he understands that there are other ways to stop the game, without compromising the player.”
One of the three who arrived on deadline day, Matz Sels, went straight into action. Giovanni Reyna and Rodrigo Ribeiro arrived from the bench. Forest turned to Sels to address their goalkeeping weakness this season, with Matt Turner relegated to the bench alongside Odysseas. Vlachidimos. In fact, including Wayne Hennessey, Forest traveled south with four goalkeepers in their ranks. Five, if we count Nuno, who won the Champions League with Porto under José Mourinho in 2004.
“It was not an easy decision, it is always difficult to change goalkeepers, but what we need and look for is stability, confidence and Matz gave it to us,” Nuno said.
The foul count (31 in total) told the story of this forgettable stop-and-go contest. Taiwo Awoniyi wasted the opportunity to cancel Justin Kluivert's first goal, who slipped at the crucial moment, and Ryan Yates also failed to really test Neto in the Bournemouth goal after turning inside the area. Sels was also largely unconcerned.
“There were no great opportunities for either team, the pace of the game was very slow, there were a lot of interruptions,” said Bournemouth coach Andoni Iraola. “It wasn't a good game to watch. The game was basically decided by a set piece.”
It would be unfair to put too much blame on Sels for Bournemouth's first goal in the fifth minute, but the goalkeeper failed to control his area from a corner kick. Antoine Semenyo filled in for Sels and Luis Sinisterra headed a Lewis Cook corner towards the near post and Kluivert assisted on the goal line.
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The Hudson-Odoi equalizer, on the stroke of half-time, is more likely to stick in the memory. Murillo kept Morgan Gibbs-White's free-kick alive and then Hudson-Odoi beat Adam Smith and used Ilila Zabarnyi as a dummy, bending a fine forehand into the bottom corner.
Nuno appeared frustrated on the touchline and was booked just after the hour for asking the referee to caution Alex Scott after the Bournemouth substitute collided with Nicolas Dominguez. By then, this game had deteriorated into a contest of attrition. “Both teams didn't play well in the second half,” Nuno said. “It wasn't a pretty game; very physical, very intense.”
