Liverpool 2-2 Forest: twice behind, twice level at Anfield

Nottingham Forest went to Anfield for a Saturday lunchtime kick-off, led twice, and came away with a point that at 82 minutes looked like it was going to be three. Liverpool had almost seventy per cent of the ball and spent most of the afternoon chasing a game they were expected to control.

It is two matches into the season and Liverpool have two points. That is not a crisis in August, but the way both have been dropped follows a pattern worth naming.

How the two sides arrived

Liverpool had drawn 2-2 at Newcastle on the opening weekend, another game in which they conceded twice away from home. Forest had lost 1-0 at home to Leeds, a result that put them in the wrong half of the early table and made a trip to Anfield look like the worst possible follow-up.

What happened instead was the sort of afternoon that changes how a season is read. Forest arrived organised, sat deep without being passive, and attacked the moment they won the ball back.

Forest in front, and in front again

Dan Ndoye put them ahead on 24 minutes, cutting in from the left side of the box and finishing low into the bottom right corner after Morgan Gibbs-White picked him out. Liverpool had the ball for the remainder of the half and did very little with it.

Alexander Isak levelled on the hour, finishing from very close range after Cody Gakpo had worked the ball across, and for ten minutes Anfield behaved like a ground that expected a winner. Then Forest won a penalty, and Gibbs-White converted it on 70 with a right-footed shot into the bottom left corner to restore the lead.

The rescue

Víctor Muñoz got the second equaliser on 82, finishing right-footed from the right side of the box into the high centre of the goal after Florian Wirtz had opened the defence with the pass of the afternoon.

It was Liverpool fourth shot on target of the match. From thirteen attempts. That ratio explains the result far better than the possession figure does, and it is the second week running that the same shape of problem has cost them points.

The numbers

Liverpool finished with 69.6% of the ball, thirteen shots, four on target and two goals. Forest had 30.4%, twelve shots, three on target and two goals. Converting two-thirds of your accurate attempts is not something a side can plan for across a season, but it is exactly what a team built to counter is trying to engineer: fewer chances, better ones.

Six yellow cards between the sides describes an afternoon that was more attritional than the scoreline suggests. Gibbs-White was directly involved in both Forest goals, which is the clearest possible statement of where their season runs.

Two weeks, one pattern

Liverpool have now played two matches and conceded four goals, and in both they have been ahead on possession and behind on the scoreboard. At Newcastle they drew 2-2. At home to Forest they drew 2-2 again. In neither did they lead at any point.

The shot data says the chances are there. Thirteen attempts at Anfield, four on target, two scored. What is missing is the early goal that lets a side of this shape settle into a game rather than chase it, and until it arrives every afternoon will look like this one: long spells of the ball, a lot of territory, and a scoreline that does not reflect either.

For Forest the reading is more straightforward. They came with a plan, executed it for eighty-two minutes, and were undone by a single pass from Florian Wirtz. Six yellow cards between the sides, five corners for the visitors against three for the home team, and a foul count that favoured Liverpool 13-10 all describe a game fought in midfield rather than in either box.

Gibbs-White scoring one and making the other is the detail that will travel furthest. Forest were the more dangerous side with a third of the ball, and they were dangerous through one player.

Where it leaves them

Liverpool are thirteenth with two points from two matches and a goal difference of zero. The volume of chances is there — twenty-plus shots across two games — and the conversion is not. That is a more comfortable problem to have in August than the reverse, but it needs solving before it becomes a habit.

Forest are fifteenth with one point, which undersells an afternoon that will give them a template. They went to Anfield, gave up two-thirds of the ball on purpose, and were eight minutes from winning. Very few teams will manage that this season.

Both sides play again next weekend, and both will do so knowing precisely which half of their game needs the attention. For Liverpool it is the finish. For Forest it is finding a second afternoon like this one, away from the sort of ground where the opposition insists on having the ball.