Pereira applauds ‘resilient’ Nottingham Forest and gives Gibbs-White injury update | OneFootball

After Nottingham Forest put three past Chelsea to boost their hopes of survival, Vitor Pereira praised his side’s resilience and gave an update on injured Morgan Gibbs-White.

Nottingham Forest took home three crucial points to put themselves six points above the relegation zone with their win in West London.

Taiwo Awoniyi opened the scoring early, heading home at the back post from Bilane Dakwa’s cross past Robert Sanchez. Igor Jesus converted not long after from the penalty spot, after Malo Gusto pulled Awoniyi’s shirt in the box, and put Forest in the driving seat at Stamford Bridge.

Pereira’s side picked up where they left off in the second half, as Awoniyi got his second, putting away a cross from half-time substitute Morgan Gibbs-White.

Speaking after the match, the Forest boss praised his team’s “confidence” and “resilience” to get the result, in between the two legs of their Europa League semi-final against Aston Villa.

“This team is resilient, this team is playing with confidence,” Pereira said. “They are playing united, with organisation and with ambition to win the games. We came here, not to draw, but to try to win the game.”

Both sides were forced into two changes after two heavy collisions: Zach Abbott clattered into debutant Jesse Derry in the first half, with both players down for a long time receiving treatment; and Gibbs-White came off just after his assist following a collision with Chelsea keeper Robert Sanchez.

Pereira had intended to rest Gibbs-White ahead of Forest’s trip to Villa park in midweek for the second leg of the semi-final, and was forced to retire the winger after just 20 minutes on the pitch.

“I’m waiting, I’m not a doctor. Gibbs-White has a deep cut on his eyebrow so we’ll see but he’s a fighter, he has a strong mentality,” the manager said following the match. “I hope our medical team can work magic, because he’s a very important player for us.

“I said to him you don’t need to head the balls, you just need to play, so we’ll see,” he continued, and added that he was confident the England international would be able to feature again on Thursday: “He’s speaking normally, he remembers everything, the only thing is to manage the pain.”