Why ‘scandalous’ Nottingham Forest owner entered pitch to shout at Nuno Espirito Santo
'Absolutely scandalous!'
The reason why Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis entered the pitch to shout at his manager Nuno Espirito Santo has been revealed.
The incident occurred just after the full-time whistle following Forest’s 2-2 draw against Leicester City at the City Ground on Sunday afternoon.
Despite Leicester’s late equaliser, the result marked a historic achievement for Forest as it saw them qualify for Europe for the first time in 29 years.
But it did see Nuno’s side lose grip on their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League, given a victory would’ve moved them up to fifth.
Forest owner Marinakis was left furious after the draw with Leicester, confronting Nuno with a few choice words right in the public eye.
Nuno revealed after the match that Marinakis was angered due to ‘confusion’ over Taiwo Awoniyi, who came on as a substitute in the 83rd minute before suffering an injury just five minutes later.
Speaking after the match, Nuno told Sky Sports: ‘There was a confusion over the situation of [Taiwo Awoniyi]. There was frustration to play 10 minutes with a player that had so much confidence and being positive that he’s going to score.
‘We made the sub, then played with one man less. That causes frustration, it’s obvious. When there’s a player down, you get information about them. We got information he was okay to keep going so we made a sub.
‘Unfortunately, we didn’t have another stoppage to change him, and he was not able to continue to help the team. We’re all frustrated. We felt the Leicester goal was not in the flow of the game, but we tried to then go for the winner.’
Nuno then defended his owner, adding: ‘Football is emotions. It’s difficult to control, especially when we had so much expectation today.’
