Former Liverpool striker Taiwo Awoniyi was the Nottingham Forest hero as their season came to life with a famous 1-0 victory over the Reds.
Forest started the day rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table, but a second-half strike from Awoniyi was enough to earn them a famous win. It could have been more for Forest without the heroics of Alisson Becker, with an out of sorts Mohamed Salah unable to carry Liverpool ‘s much-changed attacking setup.
And when they needed a stop from Dean Henderson, Forest got it. The Manchester United loanee made a pair of close-range blocks to deny Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk.
The result lifts Forest into 19th and above local rivals Leicester City. Meanwhile, Liverpool’s recent resurgence was halted as their early-season inconsistencies reared their head again. Here are the talking points from a raucous City Ground.
Awoniyi spent six years at Anfield, but failed to make a single competitive appearance in that time. That was despite Klopp being a notable admirer of the forward.
The Liverpool boss told him that after an impressive loan spell in Union Berlin, it was the right step for his career to go there permanently. A year later, Awoniyi was back in English football with Forest.
Awoniyi opted to not celebrate his goal in front of the bouncing Trent End, but few would have forgiven him a little smile.
Jurgen Klopp admitted that he was left feeling “as low as possible” after watching his Liverpool side slump to a surprise 1-0 defeat against Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon.
“With all the changes we had to make and with the intense week behind us it was clear we had to make a fight of it. The boys did that. The chances they had were pretty much counter attacks where we gave the ball too easily away. We were dangerous and a real threat and the set pieces were 100 per cent chances pretty much.”