Dominant first half, cruel finale: Pereira confident Forest can stay up despite late Liverpool winner | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest manager Vitor Pereira is confident his team can survive this season, despite the club's late defeat to Liverpool.

Forest remain just two points above thePremier League's relegation places after a 1-0 defeat to Liverpool at the City Ground. Alexis Mac Allister's 97th-minute winner snatched the points for the visitors, who had survived a first-half onslaught from Forest.

The hosts had 59% of the possession in the first half and 12 shots on goal, but were unable to turn that dominance into an advantage.

Liverpool grew into the game after the break and found a stoppage-time winner, as Stefan Ortega failed to deal with Virgil van Dijk's header. The German goalkeeper's parry fell invitingly to Mac Allister, who slammed in to confirm a deflating defeat for Forest.

Pereira expressed his disappointment at full-time, admitting the result was 'not fair' on his side. The defeat extends Forest's recent record to four games without a win. However, he praised Forest's 'quality and spirit' in his firstPremier League fixture in charge and believes the squad have the tools to avoid relegation.

"That is football. Not fair a lot of times. We played the first half in a fantastic way, creating problems and we deserved to score. We didn't," the Portuguese coach reflected toSky Sports.

"We played three days ago. Our capacity to press them was not the same and in the end, we conceded. We need to accept but the supporters were fantastic. It was a short time with the team and we need to create this special situation. One point is not enough.

"This is football. It is small details and at least one point was OK.

"They have talent, quality and spirit. If they played the way they played in the first half, then we can get a lot of points."