'Angry' Vitor Pereira hesitant to enter dressing room after 'unfair' Liverpool winner

Vitor Pereira

Vitor Pereira questioned Liverpool’s winner and admitted he was “angry with football” after a dramatic finish at Nottingham Forest.

Alexis Mac Allister scored the only goal seven minutes into additional time to earn the Reds a 1-0 Premier League victory on Sunday afternoon.

The strike was allowed after a lengthy VAR check ruled Virgil van Dijkonside from Dominik Szoboszlai's cross before his header was parried by Stefan Ortega into the path of Mac Allister.

new Forest boss Pereira said: “We lost the ball from a throw-in and then there was a small tactical detail.

“If you want to control the far post as the far post was the zone they attacked with the biggest players, it means we had to adjust our line to control the situation.”

“It’s not possible in a short time to fix everything, and they scored a goal. It was very, very unfair, but this is football.”

In my opinion, (Hugo) Ekitike was in the same zone (as Van Dijk) and was offside. But it won’t alter the decision.”

Forest dominated the first half but Liverpoolgoalkeeper Alisson Becker was only required to make one save of note all game when denying Callum Hudson-Odoi in the opening moments.

Pereira.

“I am very frustrated today, it was very difficult to go inside the dressing room,”

“What could I say to them?

“Even after we conceded the disallowed goal, we had a chance to score because we want to win the game.

“I am frustrated and sad and angry with football.

“But it’s time to keep the mentality, to come back stronger and with confidence to face the future because the first half we played in the way we played in Istanbul (Forest beat Fenerbahce 3-0 in the Europa League play-off first leg on Thursday) but we didn’t score the goals.

“We didn’t score the chances we created, we had two good chances but we didn’t score.

“We didn’t give Liverpool anything, no counter-attacks, no spaces, doing very good pressure.

"The block was compact, they played long balls and second balls and it meant the first half was only missing the goals from us. It was a perfect first half against a big team.

“Second half, of course we played three days ago and we couldn’t rest properly. Four hours travelling it’s not easy to come here and play the second half in the same way as the first.

"In the low block they played more with the ball, but they didn’t create a lot.”

Forest are now only two points clear of the relegation zone but Pereira, who replaced the sacked Sean Dyche last week, said: “I’m very confident we can stay up.”

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