EPL: Taiwo Awoniyi makes history in Nottingham Forest with Liverpool winner

Nigerian forward Taiwo Awoniyi smashed a record after scoring in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Liverpool for Nottingham Forest.

 

 

Awoniyi aggressively outran his opponent and crossed the ball to Jesse Lingard, who struck with his left foot straight at Alisson Becker, giving the home team a golden opportunity to take the lead.

After Steve Cook did well to retrieve the ball from a diagonal free-kick and put a low cross into the box in the 55th minute, Awoniyi scored for Forest. The Nigerian initially turned the ball against the post, but on his second effort, he scored on the rebound.

As a result, Awoniyi made history at the City Ground by becoming the first Forest player to score in each of his first three Premier League appearances.

In the 58th minute, James Milner produced a crucial block to prevent Forest from scoring again. Awoniyi, helped the home team make a breakthrough down the right wing, and the Super Eagle then crossed the ball to Morgan Gibbs-White, who was in a prime scoring position but was unable to capitalize.

As Gibbs-White lamented the wasted opportunity, Milner sprinted over to make a block and prevent Liverpool from going down a second time.

The sixth minute of extra time saw Liverpool pull through once more. A second counterattack was orchestrated by Forest, and Johnson’s long-range shot shattered the goal frame as Alisson moved forward.

Only Newcastle United (9) has prevented an opponent from scoring in the first half of more Premier League games this season than Forest’s eight out of 12 games.

They have also won for the first time in 10 Premier League games (D3 L6), and they defeated Liverpool at home for the first time since a 1-0 triumph in March 1996 under Frank Clark.

The only venue the Reds have played at more than once in the competition and never won is the City Ground, where Liverpool has played six league away games versus Forest (D3 L3).

After scoring a vital goal for Steve Cooper’s struggling team, supporters will be hoping that former Liverpool player Awoniyi will continue to score as the league’s newest team battles to maintain their top-tier position.

Awoniyi excelled in other areas of the game besides scoring the goal. He took three shots, two of which were on target, with a passing accuracy of 87.5 percent.

The Nigerian and his teammates’ next visit is the Emirates, where they’ll take on high-flying Arsenal on October 30.