‘No one expected us to be here’

Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo says ‘no one’ expected his club to be in the running for a Champions League place after their latest huge win at Tottenham on Monday night.

Elliot Anderson and Chris Wood scored in London as Forest responded to wins over the weekend from Manchester City, Chelsea and Aston Villa to climb back into third place.

Their season could even get better yet when they return to London on Sunday for an FA Cup semi-final with Manchester City.

“First of all we have to realise that we are in a fight that no one expected, us included, and it’s normal, but I don’t want to prove nobody wrong,” Nuno said.

“We cannot thank the fans enough.” ❤️

— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 22, 2025

“It’s about us. We have a big desire to compete and the players enjoy. We are in the mix against big teams and that can only make us proud.

“We embrace the challenge. We are ahead of a big week for us, we’re going to Wembley to compete against a big team and there are a lot of games ahead of us. As long as we keep this approach, competing well, you never know.”

After Wood ghosted in between Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven to head home Anthony Elanga’s cross Tottenham improved, but Mathys Tel and Richarlison squandered first-half chances before Dejan Kulusevski’s 59th-minute header was brilliantly cleared off the line by Harry Toffolo.

Matz Sels then thwarted Richarlison twice before the Brazil forward did head home a Pedro Porro delivery with three minutes left, but Forest held on.

Nuno added: “Of course the final minutes were full of anxiety, wishing the time to go faster and Tottenham put us against the ropes.

“We are very proud of the way we competed.

“I think the team competed well at the start of the game, we achieve goals and we were dominant even without the ball to try to contain Tottenham.

“Even though they had chances, we had Mats again at a high level, the clearance from Harry Toffolo, but spirit is about that.”