Brighton avenge February Forest thrashing with convincing victory at City Ground
By Sunny Badwal, PA
Goals in each half from Maxim De Cuyper and Stefanos Tzimas earned Brighton a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
The Seagulls secured their third win in four to climb to fifth in the Premier League table and the result also served as sweet revenge for the 7-0 thrashing they suffered at this ground back in February.
Brighton dominated the proceedings before Forest worked their way back into it, but Fabian Hurzeler’s team broke the deadlock with their 13th shot of the half as De Cuyper grabbed his second goal of the season.
Matz Sels produced a stunning double save to keep Forest in contention during the second period while Bart Verbruggen denied Igor Jesus down the other end, yet Brighton sealed the points late in the piece through substitute Tzimas’ first goal of the league campaign.
Defeat for Forest ended their five-game unbeaten run in all competitions and was just a second league loss since Sean Dyche arrived as boss, leaving them still just a point above the relegation places.
Brighton had the hosts pinned back in their own half for the majority of the opening minutes which created a large sense of nervousness around the City Ground, De Cuyper twice swinging a cross in behind Forest’s backline which the visitors failed to capitalise on.
The away side were edging closer to an early goal as well, with a flurry of shots blocked from going in before Ibrahim Sangare blocked Georginio Rutter’s goalbound strike.
Forest did nothing in the way of threatening Brighton’s goal, Morgan Gibbs-White skying an effort high wide over the bar to sum up their opening quarter.
The hosts seemed to have weathered the early Brighton storm and registered the first shot on target as Verbruggen dealt with Nicolas Dominguez’s strike.
Dyche’s side did well to turn the tide for a while and they were the team on top leading up to the break. Dominguez found Gibbs-White who guided an effort towards goal but saw it spin the wrong side of a post at the last second.
However, Brighton went in front on the stroke of half-time.
A long ball made its way to Rutter who played a teasing ball across and, aided by the run of Danny Welbeck, it opened the space for De Cuyper to finish expertly beyond Sels.
Forest went searching for an equaliser after the break but Gibbs-White sent another one wide of the target from a corner.
The City Ground crowd were beginning to grow impatient as they thought the visitors were trying to slow the game down to hold their 1-0 advantage.
Forest had goalkeeper Sels to thank for keeping the deficit at one with a fantastic double save to initially deny Diego Gomez before he sprung up to keep Ferdi Kadioglu’s effort out when it looked certain he would score.
And Forest almost punished them with an equaliser down the other end but Igor Jesus was denied by Verbruggen.
The hosts then committed men up the pitch, which led to Brighton’s second in the 88th minute. Morato misjudged a header back to Sels which allowed Tzimas to pounce and seal the win.
