Nottingham Forest – Manchester City: Citizens Continue Their Resurgence (0-2)

Nottingham Forest did not grace this coveted contest on the hallowed Wembley turf thanks to the magic of the cup. They have caught the former Premier League champions— and the rest of the elite in England— off guard, robbing the rich to leave them with the hollow carcass of high possession counts without penetration. But the team took a bump back to earth on this occasion.

Tactical analysis and match report by Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere.

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Only one point separates these two teams in the Premier League, but no one could have foreseen that proximity at the start of the season. It has been a strange time for the contestants of this semi-final.

In an age of obsession with possession, Nottingham Forest felled the Big Six with deep, disciplined defending. In the last four months alone, they have drawn with Liverpool and Arsenal, beaten the blue and red halves of Manchester, and defeated Tottenham Hotspur, keeping four clean sheets. A no-frills outlook on the game has worked its magic in this FA Cup run with shootout victories in the last three rounds— including over Brighton & Hove Albion. Would they outwit the masters of this meta again?

For many years, Pep Guardiola grasped control of the English game, but City cannot wait for the pain of this campaign to end. Indeed, they kick off this clash at the same time as Liverpool are about to earn the crown as champions of the Premier League. However, the triumph against Bournemouth in the last round seems to be the spark they craved. They have since earned 13 points from five fixtures, only dropping points in the Manchester derby, and are still in the hunt for significant silverware.

Guardiola gave spots to eight members of his starting eleven from a 2-1 triumph over Aston Villa. Ederson suffered muscle pain in the meeting with Crystal Palace a couple of weeks ago, so Stefan Ortega stayed between the posts as his deputy. Rico Lewis latched onto a role in the middle of the park from Ilkay Gündogan. Kevin de Bruyne dropped to the bench, with Phil Foden, and James McAtee was not in the squad. Savinho and Jack Grealish joined Omar Marmoush in the offense.

Nuno Espírito Santo sent out nine players that started in a 2-1 win over Spurs at the start of the week. He was already missing Ola Aina, who had a calf issue. Neco Williams was also not in the squad due to a suspension. Harry Toffolo and Zach Abbott acted as fullbacks. Danilo and Nicolás Domínguez doubled up as pivots in the midfield with Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson. Callum Hudson-Odoi operated in the attack with Chris Wood; birthday boy Anthony Elanga lost a role in the lineup.

City claim the initial advantage

Forest have frequently been able to enjoy a more conservative role because of early leads in big matches. However, the script flipped on this occasion: in less than two minutes, they fell behind. Mateo Kovačić cut through the lines, skipping past Gibbs-White with a dribble, and threaded a pass around Danilo to reach Lewis on the edge of the penalty area. The midfielder swiveled and slotted a strike into the bottom of the net past Matz Sels. How would Santo’s side respond to this adversity?

This angle of Rico Lewis' goal and celebration 🤩#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/jBBQGq9xTl

— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) April 27, 2025

They did not lose patience and stuck to their standard style. So, City saw lots of the ball, rolling out their narrow 4-2-2-2 structure. Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovačić came to the ball as pivots, splitting to support the two central defenders. Nico O’Reilly and Matheus Nunes were in wide positions on the flanks. Lewis, whom Pep has mostly used as an inverting fullback to bounce the ball safely through passing circuits, stayed away from the buildup and advanced with Grealish into the final third.

Clearly, City are not at their brilliant best. Savinho still struggles to spark into life on the right wing as explosively as on the other side of the field. All in all, the team looked a little lethargic in the final third. But they prevented an open blow of transitions and kept control in the first twenty minutes.

18^th minute: offensive sequence from Manchester City. Kovačić opened up to receive from Rúben Dias then put the brakes on his movement, bouncing the ball back to the central defender as Anderson angled himself towards Bernardo. Grealish then dropped centrally to ask for the ball, Marmoush spun inside Abbott, and Grealish gave the ball to O’Reilly. Domínguez steamed across to obstruct his dribble but then reset the triple team before any aggressive action and City circulated backwards.

Shoots sprout for Forest threat

After a tricky start, Forest began to grow into the game. They jumped higher upfield, and some silly mistakes from Kovačić and Dias helped the team try and threaten their opponents from time to time.

Espírito Santo has rotated the three attackers behind Wood into different positions from game to game. In this contest, Hudson-Odoi operated from a central slot close to the central forward, showing wide to ask for the ball and go into dribbles. Near the half hour mark, Gibbs-White zipped a through ball to his left behind the chain on a breakaway for the forward but he was offside. Minutes later, Wood held up the ball, linking with Gibbs-White with a layoff, and Hudson-Odoi was on his way again. He pulled into the right channel and could not quite connect with the striker with a cutback.

35^th minute: offensive sequence from Nottingham Forest. Domínguez dumps the ball back to Nikola Milenković and rotates ahead of the ball while Danilo followed an earlier pass to receive from the central defender. He turned forward, facing towards Domínguez, and lured Kovačić away from Gibbs-White, who had separation between the lines. He connected with Hudson-Odoi, who went into a wide dribbling duel with O’Reilly, but he was not quite able to drive away from the fullback.

The transitions were increasing but City continued to control the flow of the game. They tried to kill the tie with safe passages of ball circulation and went into half time with the lead in their hands.

At the start of the second half, Espírito Santo sent on his first substitute. Elanga replaced Danilo to feature on the right flank, Hudson-Odoi went to the left wing, and Gibbs-White was the attacking midfielder ahead of Anderson and Domínguez. His impact might have been immediate. Domínguez steered a pass to the left, where Hudson-Odoi flew forward in transition. Elanga sprinted ahead of O’Reilly, pointed for a delivery, and the ball dropped into his path. But he struck wide of the mark.

Forest fall short with their response

That miss would be critical. City charged into the box as Nunes chopped around Toffolo before drawing a save from Sels. Kovačić hacked at the ball on the volley, but it bounced off the arm of Abbott, and Sels scrambled across to knock the ball out of harm’s way— only for a moment. From the subsequent set-piece, Marmoush clipped a cross into the danger zone, and Gvardiol drifted off the back of Elanga to power a header past Sels. The improbable was now nearly impossible.

Gibbs-White would come closest to taking away a clean sheet. First, he hit the bar, lashing a volley at the target after a delivery from Elanga. Then, Gvardiol gave in to pressure, and the attacking midfielder wriggled around Ortega, but he hit the post from a tight angle. Finally, Hudson-Odoi and Taiwo Awoniyi saw efforts blocked from another Elanga cross before Ortega parried a header from Gibbs-White. Forest gave it a good go, but their journey ended here. City were in the final once more.

Takeaways

Nottingham Forest found their strategy a little harder to execute with the negative game state and ended up second best. Espírito Santo has empowered his men with the platform strong structure to make the most of moments at the other end of the pitch, but now they must make sure not to pass up on a moment to make history. Two losses in three league clashes convey a loss of momentum, but, with a game in hand, the team should still have a lot of faith that they can finish in the top five.

It has not been a pretty path to this point, but Manchester City are in their fourth FA Cup final under Pep— and the third in a row. He has received a healthy helping hand with substantive spending in January to patch up the squad. But true to his nature, he has also tampered and tinkered with his plans and seems to be happier with the rhythm of his players in possession. He now prepares for the task of taking on Crystal Palace in the final and bringing this battered and bruised squad to more success.

Match plots are not yet available for this fixture.