In a scrappy battle at the City Ground, Everton left it late — very late — to snatch all three points from Nottingham Forest, courtesy of a 93rd-minute strike from Abdoulaye Doucouré. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t polished. But it was clinical when it counted, and that’s all that matters in the business end of the season.
📋 Key Match Stats
| Stat | Everton | Forest |
|---|---|---|
| Shots | 14 | 10 |
| xG | 1.40 | 0.57 |
| Possession | 57% | 43% |
| Touches in Opp. Box | 19 | 10 |
| Shots on Target | 5 | 5 |
| Fouls | 13 | 9 |
| Corners | 7 | 1 |
Everton edged the match on possession, quality, and field control — though it nearly amounted to nothing. Forest, on the other hand, saw their xG stall out around the hour mark. They never found a second wind.
📊 Match Momentum & xG Swing
The xG timeline says it all: a slow, steady climb for both teams… until one final, brutal spike in stoppage time. Everton ended with 1.4 xG to Forest’s 0.6, but most of their quality came from a small pocket of chances.
Doucouré’s winner? It came from Everton’s best chance of the match (xG: 0.37) — and it broke the stalemate in the 93rd minute, making him the hero in a game that had stalemate written all over it until that moment.
🎯 Shots & Finishing: Wasteful Forest, Resilient Toffees
Everton
14 shots, 1 goal, 1.40 xG
5 shots on target, 4 blocked, and a cluster of efforts from central areas just outside the six-yard box.
Shot map shows they had decent chances but struggled with conversion — until that final blow.
Nottingham Forest:
10 shots, 0 goals, 0.57 xG
They hit 5 on target but couldn’t beat Pickford. Their shot map reveals a heavy concentration of low-quality efforts from outside the box.
Despite promising buildup, their end product lacked punch.
🔄 Possession Play & Tactical Structure
Everton (57% possession):
Their pass map tells the story of a well-drilled shape, playing through the Gueye–Doucouré–Garner midfield triangle with width from Mykolenko and Harrison.
They maintained a clean structure in buildup and advanced smartly down the flanks, with Pickford and the backline recycling possession well.
Despite the control, they struggled to get bodies into the box until late.
Nottingham Forest (43% possession):
Forest’s map reveals a team trying to play through Domínguez and Anderson in the middle, but they often stalled at the edge of Everton’s box.
Hudson-Odoi and Gibbs-White drifted into pockets but never found decisive final passes.
Build-up lacked verticality, and the attacking trio looked isolated.
🧠 Final Whistle Thoughts
This was a grind, a trench battle, a tactical chess match with very few open looks — until Everton played their winning card in the dying embers.
Forest will be frustrated — they had their moments and matched Everton in shots on target, but lacked sharpness in front of goal. Everton? Not dazzling, but definitely decisive.