Manchester City suffered a setback in the Premier League title race after drawing 1-1 at Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Bernardo Silva‘s first-half strike looked enough for City to claim the win but Chris Wood levelled the scores with six minutes remaining.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
Erling Haaland will rue two big missed chances in the second half as City slipped to a shock result.
Pep Guardiola’s side missed out on the chance to leapfrog league leaders Arsenal, who sealed a last-gasp victory at Aston Villa earlier on Saturday.
The defending champions remain in second place, two points behind Arsenal who have a game in hand.
“It is one of the best games we have played but we drop two points,” Guardiola told the BBC. “We should be more aggressive. There are many games still to play, we know it.
“We had amazing chances but it’s football. We have to score. We did everything. You have to do it. There were too many clear [chances] to score.”
City beat Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday to drag themselves back to the top of the standings after having trailed the Londoners for much of the season.
Victory over Forest, whom they beat 6-0 in the reverse fixture earlier in the season, was expected, with the only downside in an impressive first-half display being that City were unable to score more than once to make their dominance count.
Haaland, eyeing a 33rd goal in all competitions in his remarkable debut season in England, had to wait for his moment, but his wastefulness ended up costing City all three points.
The Norwegian looked odds on to find the net after his own effort came back to him off the crossbar but he got underneath the rebound effort and put the ball into the stands.
Wood’s first goal for Forest since joining from Newcastle United on loan could not have been better timed, earning his side a valuable point in their fight to stay in the Premier League and damaging City’s title tilt in the process.
City failed to beat a newly-promoted side in the top flight for the first time since April 2021 when they lost to Leeds United — they had won nine such games in a row before Saturday’s draw.
“For me Manchester City are the best team in the world,” Forest coach Steve Cooper said. “They are fascinating to watch and study. There was no shame City had the ball as much as they did.
“I owe a lot of gratitude to the players for sticking to the plan.”
Information from Reuters was included in this report.
