The ECHO looks at how the national media analysed Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in the Premier League
Alexis Mac Allister celebrates right in front of the Liverpool supporters after his dramatic winning goal at Nottingham Forest(Image: James Holyoak/MB Media/Getty Images)
Liverpool secured their third successive win across all competitions with a 97th-minute winner via Alexis Mac Allister at Nottingham Forest on Sunday. The 1-0 triumph was enough to move them level on points with fourth-place Chelsea after their 1-1 with Burnley on Saturday at Stamford Bridge.
The ECHO, as always, was on the road with the Reds and at City Ground to provide our exhaustive match-day coverage. You can find our big-match verdict, our player ratings, the post-game analysis and the reactions of both Arne Slot and new Forest boss Vitor Pereira all here. See how it unfolded in our live blog here, too. No stone is left unturned on match-days at ECHO HQ…
But our colleagues from the national media were also on hand to present their own considered takes. Here’s how they viewed things as Liverpool secured what could yet be a huge win in their Champions League qualification quest.
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Lewis Steele, of the Daily Mail, writes: “Rio Ngumoha came off the bench with Liverpool needing a special moment and he made one. Mac Allister’s first goal, though later disallowed, all came from the 17-year-old.
“The former Chelsea lad would play more if not for his tender age. Slot is keen to not ask too much, too soon and pay the price with Ngumoha not being ready physically. But surely it is now time for Ngumoha to get his first Premier League start?
“It is hard to praise the youngster without it looking like criticism of the other wingers, Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah. Neither of them, in recent months at least, have been at their best.
“Gakpo has scored two league goals this side of mid-October, while Salah last netted in this competition on November 1. No-one is saying that Ngumoha is suddenly going to bang in 10 goals between now and the end of the season but he offers something different. He makes defenders panic and retreat.
” Slot said: ‘He has incredible potential, otherwise, at 17 years of age, you don’t play as many minutes as he does in the Premier League, let alone at Liverpool… I don’t think there is any other 17-year-old who has played as many minutes in the Premier League as he has.’
“He has a point. In terms of his overall journey, Ngumoha is well ahead of the curve. It is understandable why they are going easy on him and not asking too much. But based on several cameos so far in 2026, the evidence suggests he deserves to play more.”
The Independent‘s Rich Jolly opines: “Winning without playing well is supposed to be the mark of champions. Liverpool will not be champions for too much longer, but it could be a sign of a team who can at least reach the Champions League. Or, Arne Slot might say, a one-off.
“Too often, in his opinion, good performances have not brought the right result this season. So Liverpool delivered the worst first half of his reign, in his own words, at Nottingham Forest, and still won.
“An extreme case, and a game with its own idiosyncrasies, but part of a wider theme. Without always hitting the heights, Liverpool have become hard to beat and just as hard to rule out of contention for a top-five finish. They have only lost two of their last 20 games in all competitions.
“Those two defeats, which Slot felt were undeserved, required injury-time deciders. There was an immediate response to each: walloping Qarabag four days after being beaten by Bournemouth, triumphing at the Stadium of Light three after the darkness of losing to Manchester City.
“City’s 2-1 triumph at Anfield left Liverpool staring at the prospect that the season of the £450m spend would end with them in the Europa League, perhaps even the Conference League. They are still sixth but, over the last two rounds of fixtures, they have closed a four-point gap to Chelsea when Liam Rosenior’s men, who faced Leeds and Burnley at home, might have imagined going seven or eight clear of Slot’s side, who had seemingly harder fixtures.
“Liverpool have found different ways to win away: convincingly at Sunderland, unconvincingly at Forest. Those unaware of the respective sides’ workloads could have been forgiven for assuming in the first half that a labouring Liverpool were the team who had played in Istanbul three days earlier and a faster and seemingly fresher Forest had enjoyed a free midweek, not the other way around.”
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Gregor Robertson, on the pages of The Times, reflects: “Breathless, bonkers, bedlam — you can take your pick but, my goodness, what a finale we were treated to at the City Ground.
“Quite how Liverpool emerged from this game with all three points is a mystery but, in the end, Alexis Mac Allister’s 97th-minute winner was the game’s dramatic, decisive and all-important moment, and a shell-shocked Nottingham Forest were left to rue an afternoon that felt like a robbery in Robin Hood country.
“Where to start? Not, in fact, with that late, late winner. The chaos really began in the 89th minute when young Rio Ngumoha, who had replaced Mohamed Salah, skipped to the byline during an impish cameo and stood up a cross for Hugo Ekitike.
“Ekitike should have scored, but headed too close to Stefan Ortega and the Forest goalkeeper palmed the ball loose in the six-yard box. As Ola Aina attempted to volley clear, the Forest full back inadvertently smashed the ball off the back of Mac Allister and into the net to give Liverpool what appeared to be the ultimate smash-and-grab winner.
“Enter the video assistant referee. Had the ball struck Mac Allister’s arm too? Paul Tierney thought so, and the Argentina midfielder later graciously admitted that it had. ‘It did, but it’s harsh,’ he admitted, after striking the winner, his first goal of the season. ‘I understand the rules but it’s football, it’s very harsh.’
“The City Ground, understandably, took great pleasure in that decision, but as it turned out their celebrations were a little premature. An Ibrahim Sangare rasper whistled past the post as Forest searched for a winner but back came Liverpool, showing more urgency in the final seven minutes than they had in all of the previous 90.
“Dominik Szoboszlai lifted one final cross up to the back post, Virgil van Dijk’s header was scrambled off the goalline and that man Mac Allister was there lash in the rebound in emphatically. Cue delirium in the away end and, after another VAR check — this time for a possible offside against Van Dijk, who was deemed to be onside — the goal stood. And breathe.”
And in the ECHO’s verdict: “Throughout this turbulent and troubled campaign, Arne Slot has often argued that Liverpool haven’t always got what they have deserved. He might want to add this to the list.
“Across the balance of play, Liverpool were fortunate to emerge from the City Ground with just their second league win here in 42 years, but the nature of this 1-0 victory, their second successive triumph on the road, may inject further belief that they can end this term with a place in the Champions League.
“Having been denied by a handball call from VAR in the closing stages – when Ola Aina’s clearance initially appeared to have struck him on the back – Alexis Mac Allister would not be denied a second time, pouncing on a loose ball to plunder home and give the Reds a huge three points against Nottingham Forest.
“It wasn’t pretty and it was far from flowing but Slot’s players dug deep to keep a rejuvenated Forest at bay under their fourth manager of the season in Vitor Pereira. And their desire to keep going is what ultimately allowed them to pilfer a winning goal here. How refreshing it must feel for Slot to be on the right side of some late drama for a change.”
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