Report: Nottingham Forest 2-0 Spurs

Spurs crashed out of the League Cup at the first hurdle at the expense of a revived Nottingham Forest, who cruised to a 2-0 victory thanks to second-half goals from Renan Lodi and Jesse Lingard.

Antonio Conte named a strong line-up for the Lilywhites, which featured the likes of Harry Kane, Eric Dier, and Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg, but Spurs never really got going in their penultimate match of 2022.

In contrast, Forest, buoyed by the lively City Ground crowd, began brightly, and were unlucky not to take the lead when Fraser Forster, making his Spurs debut in goal, misjudged a clearance, which hit a Forest body and hit the post, with Lingard’s headed rebound being saved excellently by Forster.

The giant keeper then made a quick reaction save to deny Joe Worral from a corner as Forest ramped up their pressure. Spurs had little in response, but Matt Doherty ought to have done better when the ball made its way to him in the box – instead, he hit his close-range effort straight at Wayne Hennessy in the Forest goal.

Somehow, Spurs got even worse in the second half, and fell behind within ten minutes of the restart when Lodi curled a neat effort past a helpless Forster. Despite Rodrigo Bentancur’s introduction, Spurs conceded barely a few minutes later, when a rapid Forest attack saw Lingard head in Sam Surridge’s knockdown from close range to put Forest 2-0 up just before the hour-mark.

Conte responded further to this setback by introducing Djed Spence, Bryan Gil Dejan Kulusevski, and Richarlison, with the latter drawing a foul from Orel Mangala that saw him receive his marching orders by virtue of a second yellow card.

However, Forest’s reduction to ten men came too late in the match for Spurs to mount a serious comeback, and despite a decent save from Hennessy from a Spence header and Richarlison having a goal chalked off for offside, Forest were well and truly deserved winners and can look forward to the League Cup fourth round draw. Back to the drawing board for Conte and Spurs.