Nottingham Forest travelled to Bramall Lane to face Sheffield United in Saturday’s play-off semi-final first leg and they returned to the City Ground with a 2-1 win in the bag.
It was Forest who took an early lead, Jack Colback (10′) putting the Reds 1-0 up. It was the only goal of the half and Nottingham Forest went into the break 1-0 to the good.
Brennan Johnson (70′) continued his excellent season with his 17th goal, putting Steve Cooper’s visiting Forest side 2-0 up.
With time running out, Sander Berge (91′) scored what could prove to be a vital goal for Sheffield United. His goal made it 2-1 at the final whistle.
It is a perfectly balanced tie and one where only a single goal separates both sides at what is effectively half-time in this tie.
It makes for a mouthwatering match-up this coming Tuesday when Paul Heckingbottom’s Blades will look to beat Forest at the City Ground.
With many of Steve Cooper’s Nottingham Forest side performing well in victory, one man didn’t quite stand out as much. That man is on-loan Watford star Philip Zinckernagel.
The stats don’t lie…
Zinckernagel has been on a season-long loan at Nottingham Forest from relegated Premier League side Watford.
His time with Steve Cooper’s side has seen him make 42 appearances in the Championship. In those outings, he has managed to score six goals and provide seven assists.
However, as per WhoScored’s match data, the Danish attacking midfielder was nowhere near that level of threat against Sheffield United. He earned a rather lowly 6.1 rating.
Despite seeing a decent amount of the ball (2.8%), and taking 41 touches, Zinckernagel didn’t have much of an effect.
He only completed 15 passes in a low-volume passing game where he made 20 attempts.
Added to this, he also only completed two of the five dribble attempts that he made during his time on the pitch, failing three. Overall, he was dispossessed five times on a day where he struggled to make a telling impact.
His only other positive contribution was one completed tackle before he was substituted on 69 minutes and replaced by Joe Lolley.
