You always get one chance as an underdog, two seconds that are somehow slowed down into six or seven parts that give you time to realise just how important what is about to take place will be. Taking that chance does not mean that you will win, because the quality gap cannot make such guarantees. But missing it means that you probably won’t.
Brennan Johnson is one of the pillars of this Nottingham Forest team because he is a young academy graduate and the club are still trying to develop their own, even if it is to sell for huge profit. Philip Zinckernagel is another, because he’s a loan player and Forest have a crop of those who are taking them closer to promotion than anyone here thought possible six months ago. When the former crossed for the latter, the City Ground held its breath as one and waited to scream in exaltation.
Two seconds later, there isn’t a goal. Two minutes later, there is. Zinckernagel has dragged his shot wide of Alisson’s goal. Diogo Jota has guided his past Ethan Horvath. These are the margins. But they are also the difference. Every player at the professional level has the capability to do something brilliant. What separates the best from the rest is the capability to do it consistently and to do it when under pressure. Liverpool will play Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final.
But the most surprising element of this cup tie came after the goal, not before it. Until Jota’s finish, this was a simmering fever of a game. Tackles were fierce and chances infrequent but shared fairly equally as Forest gave as good as they got against a much-changed Liverpool side. Jürgen Klopp has repeatedly stressed that this is the strongest, deepest squad of his Liverpool tenure. Evidence for that is in him making seven changes and still picking 10 senior internationals.
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After the goal, the real magic lay waiting. Most observers expected Liverpool to control possession and destroy Forest’s spirit, while Forest would look to cause mischief to maintain that spirit. When world class team meets Championship team, control becomes inevitable.
And yet, the opposite. Forest created three or four excellent openings in the final 15 minutes. Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate launched the ball forward and were put under physical pressure by Sam Surridge and Keinan Davis. Rather than control, there was chaos. They should take a compliment that Luis Diaz, Jordan Henderson and Thiago Alcantara came on to save the day.
Supporters on the banks of the Trent have been starved of cup progress. They are one of seven of the 92 league teams never to play at the new Wembley. This was the first time they have played in the last eight of any competition since 1996, when Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann and Jean-Pierre Papin were Bayern Munich’s stars in the Uefa Cup. They have waited 23 years to play Liverpool, an opponent that for at least two glorious years were lucky to call Forest their equals.
They were desperate not to act like the underdog. Mr Clough, they knew, would not have permitted it. But there were small giveaways, momentary admissions that the past can never last until the present. When Liverpool’s team coach pulled into the car park at the back of the Main Stand, a group of supporters offered boos and chants that could not be considered as a friendly welcome.
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And they did not perform like one. This is not Liverpool’s priority competition and this was not their first-choice team. But then it is not Forest’s either.
There are bigger fights to fight, more important steps to step and psychological ghosts to try and ghost in the playoff semi-finals. Sunday afternoon brought a reflection of history, a time when these two clubs wrestled on an equal footing. The best Forest could hope for was to wrestle on unequal terms, and they fulfilled that objective. If Cooper can take them to Wembley in the playoffs, nobody will miss it in the cup.
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