NOTTINGHAM, England, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister struck a winner deep into stoppage-time as his side snatched a scarcely-deserved 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Sunday.
After a pedestrian 90 minutes in which they barely managed a shot on target, Mac Allister lit the fuse with a stoppage-time effort that was ruled out for handball before rifling home a rebound in the 97th minute to snatch the win.
Liverpool's attacking struggles began before the game when Florian Wirtzsuffered an injury in the warm-up,and was replaced by Curtis Jones.
Callum Hudson-Odoi had an early chance for the home side but Alisson stood tall to thwart him, and Elliot Anderson spurned a couple of decent chances as the visitors barely threatened at all.
Liverpool’s best chance in normal time came in the 54th minute when Mohamed Salah headed a deep cross back to Jones, but Forest keeper Stefan Ortega got a foot to his shot to avert the danger, and the home side looked to be headed for a draw in their first league game under new manager Vitor Perreira.
However, Mac Allister had other ideas and he thought he had given his side the lead in the second minute of stoppage time when the ball cannoned off him and into the net, but a VAR review showed the ball striking his elbow.
Undeterred, Mac Allister latched on to a rebound in the 97th minute and lashed it into the net.
Liverpool are sixth in the table on 45 points, level with Chelsea and Manchester United, who occupy fourth and fifth spots. Forest are 17th on 27 points, two above the relegation zone.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot was well aware of how close his side came to losing more ground in the race for Champions League football.
"It was fine margins, we really struggled in the first half. We were the lucky ones, scoring in the extra time," he told the BBC, and though Mac Allister was happy to get the three points, he was far from pleased with how his side performed.
"Mixed feelings, I love scoring, I love winning, but I don't think we played very well. It's always nice when you win," he told Sky Sports.
"We need to analyse what we did well and what went wrong. The intensity wasn't there, but we did what we did to win."
In Sunday's other games, Crystal Palace eked out a 1-0 win over rock-bottom 10-man Wolverhampton Wanderers, who had Ladislav Krejci sent off for picking up two yellow cards in quick succession, and Raul Jimenez struck twice as Fulham won 3-1 at Sunderland.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor, editing by Ed Osmond)
