Nottingham Forest beat Brighton 4-3 on penalties to reach the 2024-25 FA Cup semi-finals, following a 0-0 draw at the AMEX Stadium.
Following a scrappy contest across 120 minutes, Brighton’s Jack Hinshelwood and Diego Gomez missed their penalties which allowed Ryan Forest to send Forest to the semi-finals with the final spot-kick of the shootout.
Forest alongside Crystal Palace – after the Eagles beat Fulham 3-0 in the lunchtime kick-off – will discover their Semi-Final opponents on Sunday 30 March at circa 15:30pm BST following the conclusion of Preston’s Quarter-Final tie against Aston Villa, live on BBC One in the UK.
Unbeaten in 56 days since their 7-0 league mauling away to Forest on 1 February, Brighton initially matched Forest but Nuno Espirito Santos’ Tricky Trees soon wrestled control of the game albeit with little cutting edge in their end product.
Forest’s best opportunity of the opening 30 minutes came in the 16th minute from Taiwo Awoniyi’s connection to Morgan Gibbs-White’s cross, yet the Nigerian could only hit his shot into Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen who deflected the ball away from goal.
Brighton likewise struggled to carve out many opportunities when on the attack except Kaoru Mitoma’s deflected pass towards Danny Welbeck in the 27th minute, which was rifled wide on the rebound by Yasin Ayari.
Neither team managed to find a breakthrough in a tense opening half but Brighton almost snatched the opening goal in the 45th minute, after Mitoma’s cross was deflected out to Carlos Baleba who smashed wide of the right corner.
Brighton once again went closest after half-time as Georginio Rutter fired over on a tight-turn from an initially cleared corner worked back into the box.
Verbruggen again kept Brighton in the game with a 49th-minute flicked deflection of Gibbs-White’s long-range shot, before Jack Hinshelwood headed wide up the other end for Fabian Hürzeler’s Seagulls in the 56th minute.
The game continued to have a cagey feel until Forest appealed for a penalty following a 63rd minute foul from Adam Webster on Ryan Yates, which was waved away but referee – Peter Bankes instead awarded a penalty seconds later after Mitoma fouled Elliot Anderson.
VAR however persuaded Bankes to overturn the penalty following a pitchside monitor review, which showed that Mitoma made no major contact with Anderson during his sliding tackle, who instead tripped over the Japanese winger’s elbow in an unavoidable collision.
Forest nearly sealed the tie in the second minute of injury time through Murillo’s flicked shot from Gibbs-White’s diagonal cross, but the Brazilian’s bouncing effort fell comfortably for Verbruggen to save mid-air.
Gibbs-White then saw his header from Ola Aina’s cutback cross cleared two minutes later as Brighton dug deep to force extra time, which failed to produce much quality of note aside from Diego Gomez’s deflected shot for the hosts.
Brighton however almost won the tie in the 118th minute after Pervis Estupinan knocked down a cross for Joao Pedro to roll in from close-range, but the goal was disallowed due to Estupinan having been offside in the build-up which ultimately resulted in a penalty shootout.
Pedro, Anderson, Brajan Gruda and Callum Hudson-Odoi converted the first pair of penalties for both teams, before Matz Sels saved Brighton’s third spot-kick from Hinshelwood with a well-timed dive to his left to keep the ball out of the bottom-right corner.
Neco Williams then blazed Forest’s third penalty over the bar to keep the score level at 2-2 after three spot-kicks apiece for both teams, before Gomez smashed Brighton’s fourth penalty straight into Sels.
Nikola Milenkovic dispatched Forest’s fourth kick into the bottom-right corner to give them the advantage going into the final round of penalties, as Lewis Dunk went the same way to give Brighton hope of keeping their FA Cup dreams alive.
Yates eventually dealt the killer blow with a calmly-taken shot into the left corner to send Forest through to a first semi-final appearance in 34 years, having last done so when they finished runner-up in 1990-91 season.
Speaking to BBC post-match, Yates admitted that he was “nervous” but “relieved” that his penalty won the match for Forest following two excellent saves by Sels, as the Tricky Trees continue their impressive season.
“It has been an incredible season. We have achieved nothing yet but to send these lot to Wembley again – we know how special it was last time, getting promoted. It will be a special day and I am so pleased for the supporters and overall I think we deserved it.”
What’s Next?
Brighton face a crucial Premier League clash against Aston Villa at home on Wednesday 2 April at 19:45pm BST as both teams look to continue their push for Champions League qualification.
Forest meanwhile host Manchester United at 8pm on Tuesday 1 April at the City Ground, as the Tricky Trees look to keep Champions League qualification in their own hands in third place in the league.
Teams
Brighton: Bart Verbruggen, Jack Hinshelwood, Jan Paul van Hecke, Adam Webster (Dunk 90′), Pervis Estupinan, Carlos Baleba, Yasin Ayari (Gomez 80′), Yankuba Minteh, Georginio Rutter (Gruda 75′), Kaoru Mitoma (Adingra 72′), Danny Welbeck (Pedro 72′)
Substitutes: Simon Adingra, Eiran Cashin, Lewis Dunk, Brajan Gruda, Diego Gomez, Joao Pedro, Tom McGill, Matt O’Riley, Charlie Tasker
Forest: Matz Sels, Ola Aina, Nikola Milenkovic, Murillo, Neco Williams, Nicolas Dominguez (Silva 96′), Elliot Anderson, Morgan Gibbs-White (Morato 120′), Ryan Yates, Danilo (Hudson-Odoi 61′), Taiwo Awoniyi (Elanga 61′)
Substitutes: Willy Boly, Anthony Elanga, Jota Silva, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Alex Moreno, Morato, Ibrahim Sangare, Harry Toffolo, Carlos Miguel
Referee – Peter Bankes
