Nottingham Forest 2-3 Newcastle: Bruno brilliance seals big win for the Toon
Bruno Guimaraes scored twice in another chaotic game at the City Ground as Eddie Howe’s Mags won their first back-to-back away games of the Premier League season.
Twice Newcastle were ahead – through first-half strikes from Bruno and Schar – and twice Forest leveled the game – through wingers Elanga and Hudson-Odoi before a second-half curler from the South American sent us 3-2 up.
The Mags were again exposed in wide areas as Eddie Howe was forced to defend his selection of Dan Burn in pre-match media duties.
The opening goal came courtesy of a well worked corner routine. The ball was passed short to Trippier outside the right corner of the box. The right back whipped it to the back post where an unmarked Bruno volleyed home.
Forest’s equaliser came on the break around fifteen minutes after our opener. Gibbs-White picked up the ball deep in his half and drove forward into the gap left by Miley who had stepped up. Gibbs-White picked a defence-splitting pass and Elanga beat Burn for pace to slide the ball under the rushing Dubravka. Another goal conceded from a quick break, exposing our lack of pace in the defensive third.
Newcastle were back ahead before half-time after another set piece caused problems for the Forest defence. Botman nodded across after the ball was floated in from a deep freekick and Fabian Schar was there to smash in a side-footed volley. That's now three goals in the Swiss star's last two away games and another superb finish.
But right on the stroke of the break, Forest pegged the Mags back as a long-range strike from Hudson-Odoi deflected off Miley past Dubravka who was rooted to the spot.
Bruno completed his brace just after the hour mark with a superb curled long range effort. It was a lovely finish from the edge of the box and sparked brilliant celebrations in the away end after our Brazilian maestro fired past former Mag Matz Sels.
A penalty shout for Forest came just before Bruno’s second and was labelled as “controversial” by Sky commentary, but Awoniyi’s leg was trailing, and he engaged contact with Dubravka. Even a lengthy VAR check did not see a penalty.
Howe had tweaked his tactical set-up as Bruno was deployed higher up the pitch than usual, playing as an 8. His freedom going forward gave him two goals and justified Howe’s tactical changes.
Taking the Brazilian’s place at the base of the midfield was Miley. On a few occasions Trippier inverted into midfield to create a double-pivot with the teenager. Bruno returned to the base of the midfield with around 15 minutes to play.
The result sees us jump to seventh in the table and keeps the us in contention for European football next season. It is also the first time since 2016 that we have won four away games in a row in all competitions.
The Toon welcome Bournemouth to St James’ next Saturday and will hope to be more defensively solid than of late.
NUFC XI: Dubravka – Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn – Longstaff, Bruno, Miley – Almiron, Wilson, Gordon.
SUBS: Karius, Dummett, Lascelles, Ritchie, Barnes, Krafth, Hall, Livramento, Murphy.
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