Forest Wins at Wolves and Closes Gap on Premier League Leader Liverpool

Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Nottingham Forest - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 6, 2025  Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their second goal with Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White and Nottingham Forest's Neco Williams REUTERS/David Klein
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Nottingham Forest - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 6, 2025 Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their second goal with Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White and Nottingham Forest's Neco Williams REUTERS/David Klein
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Forest Wins at Wolves and Closes Gap on Premier League Leader Liverpool

Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Nottingham Forest - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 6, 2025  Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their second goal with Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White and Nottingham Forest's Neco Williams REUTERS/David Klein
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Nottingham Forest - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 6, 2025 Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their second goal with Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White and Nottingham Forest's Neco Williams REUTERS/David Klein

Nottingham Forest beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 away from home and moved within six points of Premier League leader Liverpool on Monday.
First-half goals from Morgan Gibbs-White and Chris Wood and an injury-time third from Taiwo Awoniyi sent Forest to a sixth straight league win, The Associated Press reported. Nuno Espírito Santo’s men are tied on points with Arsenal, which is above them on goal difference.
The game took place on the 50th anniversary of Brian Clough’s appointment at the City Ground and the old maestro would have been thrilled to see his team get off to the perfect start with a goal after six minutes.
Former Wolves midfielder Gibbs-White combined on the counterattack with Anthony Elanga before stroking the ball into the bottom corner from 14 meters.
Both sides looked to play football and Wolves came into the game. However, Norwegian striker Jørgen Strand Larsen rued missing a couple of clear chances and he was punished two minutes before halftime when Wood doubled the visitor’s lead.
The big New Zealander put away Callum Hudson-Odoi’s cut back to grab his 12th goal of the season and his eighth in 13 league appearances against Wolves.
Forest dominated the second half and Wood's late replacement Awoniyi made it 3-0 in stoppage time.
The result set up a mouth-watering fixture between first and third next week, when Forest hosts Liverpool on Jan. 14.
It also brought Forest's European dreams a tiny bit closer. Wood said the squad's focus was keeping up the rich form that would make that happen for the first time since the 1990s.
“It is about consistency and doing what we have been doing extremely well already this season," Wood said. "We’re not giving up halfway through the season, we need to keep doing what we’ve been doing in the first 19 matches.
The defeat was the first for recently appointed Wolves coach Vitor Pereira and left it fourth from bottom.
It was “one of those games where you feel like the result could’ve been the other way,” Wolves defender Matt Doherty said. “Teams are ruthless. You can’t make mistakes and we made a couple of them and we got punished.”



African Players in Europe: West Africans Help Plymouth Stun Liverpool

Football - FA Cup - Fourth Round - Plymouth Argyle v Liverpool - Home Park, Plymouth, Britain - February 9, 2025 Plymouth Argyle's Muhamed Tijani celebrates after the match. (Reuters)
Football - FA Cup - Fourth Round - Plymouth Argyle v Liverpool - Home Park, Plymouth, Britain - February 9, 2025 Plymouth Argyle's Muhamed Tijani celebrates after the match. (Reuters)
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African Players in Europe: West Africans Help Plymouth Stun Liverpool

Football - FA Cup - Fourth Round - Plymouth Argyle v Liverpool - Home Park, Plymouth, Britain - February 9, 2025 Plymouth Argyle's Muhamed Tijani celebrates after the match. (Reuters)
Football - FA Cup - Fourth Round - Plymouth Argyle v Liverpool - Home Park, Plymouth, Britain - February 9, 2025 Plymouth Argyle's Muhamed Tijani celebrates after the match. (Reuters)

Sierra Leone international Mustapha Bundu and Nigerian Muhamed Tijani helped second-tier strugglers Plymouth Argyle stun Premier League leaders Liverpool 1-0 in the FA Cup at the weekend.

Bundu led the Pilgrims attack until replaced by Tijani after 72 minutes of a fourth-round tie settled by a Ryan Hardie penalty early in the second half.

Liverpool had hopes of a Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup quadruple dashed after resting several stars, including prolific scorer and Egypt captain Mohamed Salah.

Here, AFP Sport highlights African headline-makers in the FA Cup and major European leagues:

MUSTAPHA BUNDU/MUHAMED TIJANI (Plymouth)

Bundu had a penalty appeal rejected and set up a scoring chance for Callum Wright that was not far off target in the southern England port city. Later, Tijani mistimed a diving header that could have doubled the lead.

ANTOINE SEMENYO (Bournemouth)

The Ghana forward's ninth goal this season propelled the Cherries to a 2-0 win at Everton.In the last FA Cup tie at Goodison Park before Everton move to a new stadium next season, Semenyo put Bournemouth ahead with a 23rd-minute penalty awarded after James Tarkowski fouled the 25-year-old. Semenyo, who has scored four times in his last six games, said: "It would be lovely to reach a semi-final where we are playing at Wembley."

MOUCTAR DIAKHABY (Valencia)

The Guinea defender scored his first goal after returning from a severe knee injury as Valencia won 2-0 against Leganes in a relegation dog-fight. Diakhaby blasted home from close range to scored their second and sprinted off in celebration having missed nearly a year before he came back in January. "After everything I've been through, it was very special," said the center-back. "I thought about the moment of the injury, how hard I've worked and my family, who were very affected by it."

FISAYO DELE-BASHIRU (Lazio)

The Nigerian international came off the bench and netted Lazio's final goal in a 5-1 thrashing of Monza as the capital club moved back into the Serie A top four. The 24-year-old is on loan at Lazio from Turkish team Hatayspor.

AHMED HASSAN (Le Havre)

The 31-year-old Egypt forward scored his first goal for Le Havre in their shock 2-1 win at Lille, a result which lifted the struggling side off the bottom of Ligue 1. Hassan, also known simply as "Kouka", joined Le Havre during the January transfer window until the end of the season, having previously been at Rio Ave in Portugal.

PATRICK ZABI (Reims)

The tall 18-year-old Ivorian midfielder, whose skills on the pitches of Abidjan earned him the nickname "Magic", moved to Reims in early January. Destined to play for the reserve team in the French lower leagues, he was instead handed a Ligue 1 debut off the bench against Nantes last weekend, and also appeared in a French Cup tie in midweek. Zabi again came off the bench for Reims late on against Lyon on Sunday, only to be sent off in a 4-0 defeat for his team.