Nottingham Forest are flying high this season and currently sit third in the Premier League table.
On Monday night, the Reds reached the last eight of the FA Cup for the second time in four seasons and there is genuine hope that this season can be truly special.
Nuno Espirito Santo celebrated wildly after the win over Ipswich. He is clearly understanding of how important the FA Cup is and there’s a genuine chance of success now.
With Forest doing well this season, there have been a number of top performers at the City Ground as Forest chase down a European place.
Gary Neville has hailed Elliot Anderson this season, while Jamie Carragher simply loves Morgan Gibbs-White.
Defensively, Forest have been vastly improved and Nikola Milenkovic has gone a long way to shoring up things at the back this season.
Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images
Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images
Nuno Espirito Santo jokes that Nottingham Forest player Matz Sels is the best in the world
The Forest head coach was doing his pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s early clash with Manchester City.
As a former goalkeeper himself, he was asked about Alisson’s performance against PSG last night with Espirito Santo calling his display ‘amazing’.
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When asked if he felt the Liverpool goalkeeper was the best in the world, however, he stopped short and with a big smile on his face and threw his weight behind his own stopper.
Espirito Santo said: “No, come on, I don’t want to answer that, for me it’s Matz Sels!
“It’s a confidence thing with Matz, he’s in the moment, the team is more solid, more compact and the improvement defensively has helped his game. He’s always there to give us a hand when he’s needed.”
Matz Sels stats 2024/25
Forest have been praised for the signing of Sels. He checked in from Strasbourg for a fee of just £4 million and that has represented unreal value for money.
The 33-year-old goalkeeper has taken his game to a new level this season and with 11 clean sheets he’s ahead of every other stopper in the Premier League right now.
Matz Sels Premier League stats 2024/25 Total
Appearances 27
Clean Sheets 11
Saves 84
Accurate Long Balls 796
Who Scored Rating 6.84
Sels is firmly established as the club’s number one stopper and he richly deserved his flowers when he kept out Jack Taylor’s penalty to send Forest to the FA Cup quarter-final on Monday.
Hopefully, Sels can now keep a few more clean sheets and help Forest complete the job when it comes to finishing in a European place.