Morgan Gibbs-White missed a penalty as Nottingham Forest were held in the Europa League to a 0-0 draw against Sturm Graz.
There was a clear eye from Sean Dyche on Sunday’s Premier League game with Leeds United at the City Ground as he made seven changes to the side that drew 2-2 with Manchester United, including leaving out Elliot Anderson, Matz Sels and Murillo.
In a game of few openings where the hosts only posted three shots, Forest created the better chances, but Gibbs-White was denied from 12 yards by goalkeeper Oliver Christensen – his first-ever miss from the spot for the club – while Nicolas Dominguez was denied a winner in stoppage time by the crossbar.
Nikola Milenkovic goes down when challenged by Emir Karic
Ryan Yates, who had earlier seen a close-range header cleared off the line, also spurned a great opportunity just after the break when nodding wide from a Gibbs-White cross.
As for the Austrian champions, the closest they came to finding the back of the net was when Forest’s back-up Brazilian goalkeeper John Victor spilled a first-half shot, only for Maurice Malone to be in an offside position before tucking home the rebound.
The result means Dyche has only lost one of his four matches in charge of Forest and they have yet to concede a goal in European football on his watch following their 2-0 win over Porto.
Neco Williams gets his pass away despite pressure from Arjan Malic
And with 10 points enough for teams to make the knockouts last season, the new Forest boss will still be confident of seeing his side – who currently have five points – progress from the league phase.
Dyche frustrated with missed chances
“I think particularly first half, dominant, not just with the ball, but dominating the chances created and the quality of chances,” the Forest boss told TNT Sports.
“Other than the penalty, which is obviously a great chance, but the chances we had from set-pieces, some of those final moments where we just didn’t capitalise.
“So more frustrated in the sense of not scoring a goal because the first half was a very dominant performance with the ball, but also creating good chances.
Tomi Horvat vies for a high ball with Gibbs-White
“There were some really good performances. You come away frustrated overall because I thought we were were the strongest side overall.
“And if we take those chances, the game often opens up and you fancy yourselves to go and score again.”
Opta facts: Gibbs-White pays the penalty
- Morgan Gibbs-White saw a first-half penalty saved by Sturm Graz goalkeeper Oliver Christensen – it was the first time he’d ever failed to score a penalty for Nottingham Forest, having netted all four before tonight (excl. shoot-outs).
- Nottingham Forest have kept their second clean sheet in their last 24 games in all competitions – both have been in the UEFA Europa League under Sean Dyche (vs Porto on MD3 & tonight vs Sturm Graz).
- Nottingham Forest faced nine shots on target and had an xG conceded total of 2.59 in their two UEFA Europa League games under Ange Postecoglou – in their two games under Sean Dyche, they’ve only faced four shots on target and an xG of only 0.67.
- Sean Dyche is just the fourth English manager to keep a clean sheet in each of his first two UEFA Europa League matches (2009-10 onwards), along with Alan Pardew, Gary Neville and Graham Potter.
