Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City Results: Delap Double Beats City's Possession

Nottingham Forest against Manchester City looked like a mismatch on paper, with the visitors second in the table on 21 points and the hosts sixteenth on nine. It played out the other way. Forest scored twice inside 18 minutes, survived a second-half City push and sealed a 3-1 win through Liam Delap's second goal on 73 minutes. Kickwise's pre-match prediction favoured City, and that call missed.

The match was decided in the opening quarter of an hour. Jair Cunha scored on six minutes and Delap doubled the lead on 18, which gave Forest's 3-4-2-1 exactly the game it wanted. With City holding 78% of possession against Forest's 22%, the hosts could sit in shape, defend a lead and pick their moments. Ahead early, a low block stops being a gamble and becomes a plan, because the team with the ball has to take risks to break it.

That dynamic explains the numbers. City edged the shot count 12 to 11 and led on expected goals, 1.78 to 1.1, but Forest were the more efficient side, with five of their 11 shots on target against four of City's 12. Possession without early penetration gave City volume but little punch. Forest's shape also gave them an outlet, and Morgan Gibbs-White (rated 7.3) helped link play so that the few spells of control they had produced real chances rather than clearances.

City did reduce the deficit. Rayan Cherki scored on 52 minutes, shortly after the break, and for a stretch the match tilted toward a comeback. Cherki (7.2) and Matheus Nunes (7.1) were City's best performers, and the visitors' expected goals total shows they created enough to threaten. But Forest absorbed the pressure without panicking, and the cards show how they did it: James McAtee and Dan Ndoye were booked on 64 and 69 minutes, and Igor Jesus and Luca Netz followed on 90. Forest committed 13 fouls to City's seven, breaking up rhythm when the visitors tried to build momentum. It was not pretty, but it was effective game management.

The moment that settled it came on 73 minutes, when Delap struck again. His second goal restored the two-goal cushion City had just cut, and it came at the point when Forest's defending was under most strain. His 8.7 rating was the highest on the pitch, and he was the clearest difference between the sides: two shots' worth of goals from a team that had far less of the ball.

For Forest, the 3-1 win is a notable result in a season where they sit in the lower reaches of the table. For City, the loss is a reminder that territorial dominance means little if the first 18 minutes go badly wrong. Anyone comparing the sides on the last match or the head to head record would have backed the visitors, but on this evening a fast start and a disciplined defensive shift mattered more than the ball.