Oliver Glasner's Nottingham Forest Begins with Late Defeat
Oliver Glasner’s Nottingham Forest tenure began with a punch to the gut.
Ninety minutes of graft, structure and promise at the City Ground, undone by a single, ruthless swing of Anton Stach’s left boot in the 88th minute. One free-kick. One lapse. One defeat.
Stach’s late sting silences City Ground
Forest looked set to take a point from an edgy Premier League opener against a new-look Leeds United when Stach stepped up over the ball, a few yards outside the box. He had earned the foul himself, drawing Nikola Milenkovic into a clumsy challenge. The German did the rest.
Over the wall, dipping, curling, and just out of Matz Sels’ reach at his near post. Leeds’ bench exploded. Glasner, in his first competitive game as Forest manager, stood motionless for a moment, the noise around him suddenly hollow.
It was a harsh ending to a tight contest that rarely flowed but never lacked edge. Set-pieces, not sweeping moves, dictated the story.
Forest show fight, but no finish
Glasner, Forest’s fifth manager in less than a year after the dismissal of Vitor Pereira last month, has been brought in to steady and then elevate a club that flirted with danger last season before pulling clear. On this evidence, his side have structure and bite. What they lacked was composure in the moments that mattered.
Forest grew into the game after a cautious opening. As half-time approached, they were the side pushing harder.
From a scrappy sequence in the Leeds box, centre-back Jair Cunha climbed highest and crashed a header against the post, the ball ricocheting away with Illan Meslier’s replacement, James Trafford, stranded. It was the clearest chance of a first half that never quite caught fire.
After the break, Forest tried to turn the screw. Ten minutes into the second period, Igor Jesus attacked a teasing cross from Ola Aina but steered his header wide. The Brazilian forward had earlier drawn a superb full-stretch save from Trafford after just 17 minutes, a stop that underlined exactly why Leeds paid a record fee for a British goalkeeper to bring him in this summer.
Those were the moments Forest had to take. They didn’t.
Leeds’ new faces make their mark
Daniel Farke demanded backing after Leeds finished eight points clear of the bottom three last season. The club answered with around £80m of investment and three statement signings: Trafford, Harry Wilson and Bosnia-Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemovic.
All three started at the City Ground. All three left a mark.
Trafford’s early save from Igor Jesus set the tone for a composed debut. Muharemovic, strong in the air, produced Leeds’ first serious test of Sels with a thumping header on 70 minutes that the Forest goalkeeper clawed away.
Wilson, fresh from 10 goals and seven assists for Fulham last season, thought he had his own dream start. Arriving late into the box, he coolly side-footed Jayden Bogle’s low cross into the net around the half-hour mark, only to see the flag go up for offside. He might also reflect on another key moment: when he met another Bogle delivery with Dominic Calvert-Lewin lurking in an onside position behind him, a touch for his striker perhaps the better option.
Leeds, though, stayed patient. They didn’t dominate, but they didn’t panic either.
The pressure finally told in the dying minutes, and it came from the man who has turned dead balls into an art form.
Stach the difference from distance
Stach’s winner was no fluke, no one-off flash. It was the continuation of a trend that is becoming one of the league’s most dangerous weapons.
Since the start of last season, the German has scored five goals from outside the penalty area – more than any other player. Four of those have come directly from free-kicks, a tally no one can better in that period.
Forest knew the threat. They still couldn’t stop it.
As his shot bent over the wall and kissed the inside of Sels’ reach, Leeds’ players swarmed the midfielder. A hard-fought draw had just turned into a statement away win on the opening weekend.
Early statement, early questions
For Leeds, this is the kind of start that fuels ambition. A clean sheet away from home, big-money signings settling quickly, and a match-winner who can decide tight games from 25 yards. Farke wanted the tools to push higher up the table. On this evidence, he has them.
For Glasner and Forest, the picture is more complicated. There were spells of control, flashes of danger, and enough organisation to suggest his ideas are already taking root. But in a league this unforgiving, late lapses and missed chances carry a heavy price.
The two clubs will meet again at the same venue on Tuesday, 25 August, in the second round of the Carabao Cup. Same ground. Same managers. Same squads.
Will the story be any different when they go again under the lights?
