Nottingham Forest 1 Man Utd 0: Anthony Elanga haunts old club as Murillo makes LAST-SECOND clearance to win game
MANCHESTER UNITED old boy Anthony Elanga zapped his former employers with a lightning goal and edged Forest a step closer to the Champions League.
United boss Ruben Amorim noted before the game how Old Trafford exiles Marcus Rashford and Antony were currently thriving on loan.
But it was another former Red Devils wideman who scored the early, only goal in a game in which the visitors did everything but score.
TNT Sports claimed Elanga, who joined Forest in the summer of 2023, had run 85 metres in nine seconds before slotting past Andre Onana in the fifth minute.
If that is true, perhaps he is in the wrong sport.
“Anthony Elanga, he left ‘cos you’re s**t,” was the gleeful song from the home fans.
But United weren’t s**t. They were the better side for most of the rest of the game, creating far more chances and keeping the home fans sweating right until the final whistle.
Diogo Dalot hit the crossbar in the first half, while Alejandro Garnacho and Mason Mount both went close in the second.
Yet Elanga’s strike proved enough to earn Nuno Espirito Santo’s side the victory and so to complete their first league double over United since 1991-92 under Brian Clough.
Now Forest need only a few more wins to guarantee that they will be competing for the Big Ears trophy that Old Big ‘Ead lifted twice.
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Meanwhile, United are heading for their own 1970’s throwback – their worst league finish since they were relegated 31 seasons ago.
As kick off approached, the Forest fans launched into a couple of quick bursts of Que Sera in celebration of the penalty shootout win over Brighton that had earned them a trip to Wembley for an FA Cup semi final.
This game was all about securing a passport to Europe, and preferably into the top-tier competition that they won twice in the good old days.
And they scored a trademark goal inside five minutes to make the perfect start.
Cup hero goalkeeper Matz Sels’ save from Bruno Fernandes’ 20-yard shot from outside the box was a little untidy.
But Forest’s break from the resulting corner was laser-guided brilliance.
How United found themselves, after their own corner, three against two home attackers is one thing.
The way that situation became two against two was all about Elanga’s lightning speed and Morgan Gibbs-White’s lung-busting run alongside him.
You wondered if Gibbs-White was going to end up cursing his team-mate for not passing.
Yet the former United trainee used the decoy to perfection and slotted past Onana while Noussair Mazraoui and Patrick Dorgu could only look on helplessly.
With pleasing symmetry, it was the 23rd time Forest had scored first in a Premier League game this season and the 23rd in which United had conceded first.
Yet United were soon creating chances, albeit mainly from distance or corners.
The visitors, in the Forest supporters’ eyes, were also playing against referee Jarred Gillett, who was not awarding the free kicks that they felt their team deserved.
Garnacho somehow avoided a booking for a nasty foul on Ryan Yates.
Diogo Dalot hit the crossbar after another dangerous corner, and Sels was grateful that Gillett did spot a foul in the scramble that followed.
Forest failed to make the most of another couple of breaks and were otherwise pretty unthreatening going forward.
They suffered further discomfort when right-back Ola Aina went off injured and Nuno made a double change to bring on a third centre back in a bid to stem the United tide.
The half ended with Onana catching a Morato header and Nikola Milenkovic making a crucial tackle on Garnacho before Casemiro fired wide.
Amorim replaced Manuel Ugarte with Rasmus Hojlund at half time and restored Fernandes to the deeper midfield role where he’d excelled in recent matches.
Onana had been cheekily described in the matchday programme as “capable of both the sublime and the ridiculous”. The save he made low to his left early in the second period from Yates’ header was the former.
Garnacho fired over the bar before Amorim saved Casemiro from himself, having seen the Brazilian booked for one foul on Yates and generally look like a red card waiting to happen.
Fernandes was starting to ping passes from deep. When Garnacho was ruled offside from one, he was booked for kicking the ball away.
From the next, the Argentine collected neatly and turned inside, only for Yates and Morato to deflect the ball to safety. Yates reacted as if he had scored.
Garnacho then fired just wide and the game was right in the balance.
Next it was substitute Mount’s turn to hold his head in his hands after he, too, sent a shot just off target.
Neco Williams ended a rare Forest attack by shooting off target just before six minutes of stoppage time.
Harry Maguire, on as as centre forward, had a shot cleared off the line by Murillo at the death and United could not find the equaliser they deserved.