SECOND HALF - NO BREAKTHROUGH
Rasmus Hojlund was brought on for the start of the second half with Manuel Ugarte making way, immediately making his presence felt in attack, running in behind to meet Garnacho’s pass and shooting from the angle, with a defender’s touch earning him a corner.
But like in the first half, while United created the first opening following the restart, Forest caused their own problems in attack quickly afterwards. There was no goal to follow the United corner this time, but Andre Onana must have thought he’d stopped one when he heroically palmed clear Ryan Yates’s close-range header, even if he wasn’t to know that it would almost certainly have been ruled out for offside.
We were unable to create as much as we’d have liked in the early stages of the second half, though Hojlund offered encouragement in attack, appearing sharp off the bench, while Garnacho was unfortunate with a quickfire pair of chances midway through the half – latching on to a Fernandes ball and having a shot deflect wide. From the resulting corner, he shot narrowly off target – again, seemingly with the help of a slight touch off Morgan Gibbs-White, but play resumed with a goal-kick.
Fernandes found De Ligt with a free-kick as our pressure began to intensify, the defender heading across goal and Hojlund getting the next touch, but failed to match the run of Zirkzee, and Garnacho fired a frustrated effort over the bar shortly afterwards.