Nottingham Forest vs Bristol City tips and predictions: Expect Nuno’s men to get it right in replay
- George Dempsey
- 6 February 2024
Nottingham Forest will welcome Bristol City to a packed City Ground on Wednesday night and we expect the Premier League side to atone for their first-leg performance.
Bristol City went toe-to-toe with Premier League clubs for 270 minutes and lived to tell the tale, but they may have missed an opportunity at Ashton Gate.
It became apparent on the night that Nottingham Forest were very stretched and rather limited regarding creativity, so at least they didn’t concede.
It was arguably the first really poor 90 minutes we’ve seen under Nuno Espirito Santo as they’re slowly becoming a competitive side again.
The 1-1 draw away to Bournemouth at the weekend isn’t to be sniffed at and it’s no surprise they looked better with the likes of Anthony Elanga, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Taiwo Awoniyi in from the start.
Bristol City have earned one point from a possible four since the first leg, extending their winless run in the Championship to six.
They were made to work hard against Leeds on Friday and this will be their ninth game in five weeks since the turn of the year, so they’ll need to rotate.
We can’t help but feel the best opportunity to beat Forest may have passed them by.
The Robins have failed to score in six of their previous 13 away games and they’ve scored under 1.5 goals in a further four.
Forest have found the net 15 times via seven different scorers across their previous seven and at some point, a Premier League side has to make their quality tell against the Reds.
Team news
Divock Origi is ruled out due to injury while Ibrahim Sangare, Ola Aina, Willy Boly and Serge Aurier are on African Cup of Nations duty.
Chris Wood, Cheikhou Kouyate and Callum Hudson-Odoi will all be assessed for minor injuries and the latter may not be risked.
Anis Mehmeti, Taylor Gardner-Hickman, Sam Bell, Hayden Roberts and Harry Cornick may be options should Liam Manning choose to utilise Bristol City’s squad.
Key stats
- Nottingham Forest are averaging 2.12 goals per game since Boxing Day
- Nottingham Forest have lost four of their previous 20 home FA Cup ties
- Bristol City have failed to score in 46% of their away games this season
Suggested bets
Nottingham Forest: Over 1.5 goals
