By SCM Sports Desk I Saturday, August 28, 2026
ANFIELD HAS NOT SEEN chaos quite like this in a very long time! On a afternoon of pulse-racing Premier League drama, Andoni Iraola’s home debut as Liverpool manager dissolved into pure madness, featuring £100m superstars, a broken electronic substitution board, and an 82nd-minute thunderbolt from new boy Víctor Muñoz to salvage a 2-2 draw against a rampant Nottingham Forest.
The headline story belonged to £34.5m summer signing Muñoz, who arrived from Osasuna and instantly etched his name into Anfield folklore. With the Reds staring at a nightmare defeat, German playmaker Florian Wirtz carved open the Forest backline with a exquisite pass to find Muñoz.
The debutant controlled the ball with nerve-shredding composure before launching an absolute rocket off the underside of the crossbar to drag Liverpool back from the brink.
Yet for long stretches of this explosive encounter, Oliver Glasner’s Nottingham Forest looked every bit the side capable of silencing the Kop.
Forest struck first on 24 minutes after a route-one kick from goalkeeper Matz Sels bypassed Liverpool’s fragile defence. Igor Jesus held up the delivery under pressure from Alexis Mac Allister and fed Morgan Gibbs-White, who laid off a crisp ball for Swiss attacker Dan Ndoye to slot low past Alisson.
Wirtz thought he had answered immediately, sweeping home a clever turn inside the box, but VAR cut short the celebration by spotting an offside against Jeremie Frimpong in the buildup. Liverpool needed a stunning fingertips save from Alisson—tipping Igor Jesus’ strike onto the crossbar right on half-time—to prevent Forest from taking a 2-0 cushion into the break.
Iraola’s side eventually hit back on the hour mark through sheer star quality. Cody Gakpo, subject of intense transfer speculation from Manchester City and Tottenham, danced past Neco Williams and Murillo before sliding a millimeter-perfect cross across the face of goal.
Swedish hitman Alexander Isak made no mistake, tapping home his target-man finish from point-blank range to set the home crowd alight.
Then came the bizarre controversy that left Iraola absolutely incandescent. Liverpool were attempting a triple substitution—preparing to introduce Ryan Gravenberch, Rio Ngumoha, and Kostas Tsimikas—when the fourth official’s electronic board broke down.
As Iraola stood fuming on the touchline waiting for the swap, Forest took a quick throw-in via Liam Delap. Former Red Neco Williams sprinted into the penalty box and was wiped out by a rushing Alisson. Gibbs-White stepped up to the spot and calmly sent the Brazilian keeper the wrong way to restore Forest’s 2-1 lead on 70 minutes.
It took Muñoz’s moment of wizardry eight minutes from time to ensure Iraola avoided defeat, capping a frantic afternoon where both teams threw caution to the wind.
The match statistics paint the full picture of an end-to-end clash. Liverpool dominated total ball possession with sixty-two percent compared to Forest’s thirty-eight percent, racking up eighteen shot attempts overall with six landing directly on target.
However, Forest were ruthlessly clinical on the counter-attack, generating twelve total shots with five on target and creating three big chances in open play.
The Reds won eight corners to Forest’s three, but defensive lapses left Iraola with plenty of homework ahead of next week.
