Nottingham Forest faced adversity just before Darwin Nunez’s thrilling 99th-minute goal propelled Liverpool to a four-point lead at the top of the Premier League.
In a tense finale at the City Ground, the Uruguayan striker scored his 14th goal of the season, securing an extraordinary last-minute win for Jurgen Klopp’s team against the relegation-threatened Forest.
Despite missing Liverpool’s previous three games due to a muscle injury sustained against Brentford, Nunez made a crucial impact off the bench in the Midlands, extending Liverpool’s lead over Manchester City and Arsenal.
However, amid the celebration of Nunez’s winner, supporters of Liverpool’s title rivals, City and Arsenal, pointed out a contentious incident before the decisive goal.
As Forest pressed for a potential winner to escape the relegation zone, referee Paul Tierney mistakenly awarded possession to Liverpool to attend to a head injury involving Calum Hudson-Odoi.
The controversy arose in the 97th minute when Morgan Gibbs White’s corner led to a collision between Liverpool’s Caoimhin Kelleher and Ibrahima Konate, leaving the French defender on the ground.
Tierney stopped play as the ball left the penalty area and reached Hudson-Odoi, who was about to interact with Liverpool’s Luis Diaz. However, when play resumed about 60 seconds later, Liverpool were given possession, going against the rules set by the International Football Association Board (IFAB).
According to IFAB’s laws of the game (section 8.2), a drop ball should be given to the defending team’s goalkeeper only if, at the time of the stoppage, the ball or its last touch was within the penalty area.
Otherwise, the referee should award a drop ball to “one player of the team that last touched the ball at the position where it last touched a player.” In this case, Forest should have regained possession because of Hudson-Odoi’s last involvement with the ball before Tierney intervene.
Despite protests from Nottingham Forest, Arsenal, and Manchester City fans about this incident during stoppage time, Nunez’s winning goal occurred nearly two minutes and two sequences of play later, with Forest conceding both a throw-in and a corner kick before Nunez’s decisive strike.
