Forest 1 Palace 0

Summary:

• Vieira names the same side that beat West Ham last Sunday.
• Zaha nearly puts Palace ahead two minutes in, but fires narrowly over.
• Forest come close through Johnson, as Lingard can’t make contact with his shot across the face of goal.
• Zaha does brilliantly to win a penalty, but misses the spot-kick.
• HT: Forest 0-0 Palace
• Gibbs-White bundles home from close range, given after a long VAR review.
• Lingard curls wide from eight yards out.
• Palace push for a late winner but to no avail.
• FT: Forest 1-0 Palace

Palace started excellently, bringing the ball forward with real vim and vigour and pressing Forest in possession. They were almost rewarded within 90 seconds as Wilfried Zaha won the ball back deep inside the Forest half and battled his way into the area, firing over the crossbar from close range.

Ebere Eze and Jordan Ayew had efforts on goal, and Zaha’s drilled delivery forced Dean Henderson into a diving save.

Forest were promising on the break, however, and Jesse Lingard was inches away from turning Brennan Johnson’s effort into an empty net.

Just before half-time Palace had their best opportunity to break the deadlock, as Zaha turned brilliantly to create space in the area before being brought down by Joe Worrall; it was as clear a penalty as you will see all season, but Zaha dragged the subsequent spot-kick wide.

It proved decisive after the restart, as the hosts took the lead. After Vicente Guaita had parried an initial effort, Morgan Gibbs-White tucked home. The flag was up straight away, but VAR intervened and the goal was given.

The Eagles pushed for an equaliser but it left them vulnerable on the break, and twice Lingard should have doubled Forest’s lead, curling wide from eight yards before dinking over the top one-on-one.

Palace pushed for a winner late on but found Forest’s resistance impossible to break down, and the full-time whistle meant a return to south London without points.