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Matt Turner delivered for Nottingham Forest, scoring the winning penalty in an FA Cup fourth-round replay against Bristol City. This victory secured a highly-anticipated match against Manchester United.
In the past few weeks, Turner has made a number of notable errors, leading boss Nuno Espirito Santo to bring in a new goalkeeper during the January transfer window.
However, the American player for the United States successfully prevented Bristol City from scoring during the entire 120 minutes of play. He then went on to save Sam Bell’s penalty kick, leading Forest to win the shoot-out with a score of 5-3 after the game ended in a 1-1 tie.
Divock Origi’s first goal for Forest since his summer move from AC Milan had given them an early lead but the spirited Championship side troubled their Premier League hosts throughout and levelled through Jason Knight.
If it weren’t for Turner’s impressive saves throughout the night, they could have emerged victorious in both regular and extra time of the tie.
Forest’s prize is a fifth-round game against Manchester United at the City Ground in three weeks. However, they will need to significantly improve as they have barely managed to defeat League One Blackpool in the third round and now face the second-tier Robins.
The team, Forest, made eight substitutions from their previous match against Bournemouth on Sunday. They were hoping for a simple game when they scored a goal in the eighth minute.
Morgan Gibbs-White pressured Max O’Leary, forcing him to make a remarkable one-handed save to his right. However, from the following corner, Origi skillfully headed the ball into the net, scoring his first goal for Forest.
It soon became evident that a prolonged evening was in the cards when the Robins equalized six minutes later.
Turner deflected Andy King’s long-range shot onto the post, causing the ball to roll across the goal line and hit the opposite post. Haydon Roberts then retrieved the ball and set up Knight to easily score into the unguarded net.
Turner was forced to make a difficult save to prevent Anis Mehmeti’s attempt from scoring, and he displayed even greater skill by stopping Tommy Conway’s low shot, as Forest’s defense was struggling.
Mehmeti attempted another shot, but Turner prevented it in the beginning of the second half, as the Forest goalie had a lot of action.
The team brought on Taiwo Awoniyi and Callum Hudson-Odoi in an attempt to gain control of the game.
In the last 10 minutes, they started to create more pressure as they built towards their goal.
Nuno Tavares had a strong shot saved by O’Leary, and then Hudson-Odoi set up Neco Williams, but his shot missed the target. The game then went into extra time.
Both teams had opportunities during the additional time, with Turner making another impressive save to block Mehmeti’s shot and Niakhate missing a free header.
During the second half of extra time, the team from the Championship was determined to score a winning goal. However, Nahki Wells’ attempt was unsuccessful as the ball was stopped on the goal line. Similarly, Matty James’ shot from a corner went over the goal.
However, the outcome of the game was determined by a penalty kick, and Bell was stopped by Turner, giving Awoniyi the opportunity to score the winning goal.
Source: independent.co.uk