Forest manager vents his anger on VAR after loss to Fulham courtesy of a controversial call by the Video assistant.
Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo was not happy after a lengthy VAR review gave Fulham a controversial penalty.
Raúl Jiménez’s controversial penalty clinched Fulham a narrow win and halted Nottingham Forest’s unbeaten Premier League start. This was the Mexican international’s 50th goal in the Premier League.
Forest’s manager, Nuno Espírito Santo, said: “We all want peace and to continue well and don’t want to come here to speak about the referees. But it was bad wasn’t it?”
Nuno avoided a touchline ban this game after being sent off for protesting against Morgan Gibbs-White’s red card last week.
Forest had played five games prior, winning two and drawing three. 30,139 spectators, their largest audience in over ten years, were denied a home league victory since April. When a second video assistant referee judgement went against Forest, the supporters were left feeling let down. Fulham, who have not lost their last five league games, had what it took.
When Chris Wood tucked home Nikola Milenkovic’s knock-down in the 25th minute, Forest supporters believed they had taken the lead, but VAR determined the striker was offside.
In response to Murillo’s challenge, Andreas Pereira fell, and Josh Smith indicated the location after examining the pitchside monitor. On the 51st minute, Jiménez scored his third league goal of the year amidst a chorus of jeers from the home crowd.
In retaliation, Nuno substituted Callum Hudson-Odoi and Jota Silva for Anderson and Nico Domínguez. However, the home crowd left more angry afteranother VAR ruling went against them. Calvin Bassey tackled Elanga, but it didn’t look like there was any contact.