Brighton, Sep 22 (IANS) Brighton and Hove Albion were held to a 2-2 draw, their third consecutive Premier League draw, by ten-men Nottingham Forest at the Amex Stadium on Sunday.
Brighton had dominated early on and one move involving Baleba and Rutter opened up Forest on the right. Simon Adingra burst into space but there was no one to convert his low ball across the face of the goal.
Instead, Forest broke the deadlock with their first penalty in 30 Premier League games. Morgan Gibbs-White’s cut-back found Callum Hudson-Odoi, who went down under Baleba’s challenge. Wood sent Bart Verbruggen the wrong way by drilling the spot-kick into the bottom left corner.
Brighton equalised the game in the 41st minute when Jan Paul van Hecke had time and space to tee up a cross from the right-hand corner of the box and Hinshelwood timed his leap perfectly to power his header past Sels.
If that was a bit special there was more to come. Kaoru Mitoma was fouled by Ola Aina in full flight 25 yards out. Welbeck lined up the target and swept a powerful right-foot free kick past a statuesque Sels into the top corner.
Forest reacted with a triple change at the break, but Brighton had got on top and a third goal nearly came on 50 minutes. Welbeck took Mitoma’s fine pass in his stride and slalomed past three defenders only for Sels to deflect his shot wide. An important save by the Forest keeper.
Forest equalised against the run of play with 20 minutes to go. Gibbs-White threaded a pass through Brighton’s high defensive line which Jota Silva ran onto before unselfishly squaring the ball to the unmarked Sosa for a tap-in and 2-2.
Forest went down to ten men with eight minutes to go when Gibbs-White picked up his second booking for a badly timed tackle on substitute Joao.
Following Gibbs-White’s dismissal, both head coaches, Nuno Espirito Santo and Fabian Hurzeler, protested at the challenge which resulted in them getting sent off as well.
–IANS
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