Nottingham Forest 0-1 Liverpool: Late Alexis Mac Allister winner moves Reds into Champions League contention | OneFootball

Reds were looking to go level on points with Chelsea and Manchester United

Liverpool survived one of their worst performances of the season to snatch a last-gasp 1-0 win in a dramatic ending at Nottingham Forest.

Arne Slot's men were woefully out of sorts at the City Ground, with former captain Jamie Carragher describing their first-half performance as a "horror show".

Yet they left with the three points after Alexis Mac Allister pounced deep into stoppage time, minutes after he had a goal controversially ruled out by VAR.

But they found a way to win and strengthened their hopes of earning Champions League qualification, moving level on points with Chelsea and Manchester United.

Defeat will sting for Forest, but they will take heart from their performance as they remain deep in a relegation battle.

All that was missing for the hosts was a goal, with Callum Hudson-Odoi missing their best chance when he was through inside the opening five minutes.

Liverpool were forced into a change after Florian Wirtz picked up an injury in the warm-up, with Curtis Jones coming into the side.

And that late alteration may have contributed to an unsettled start for the visitors, who could have been a goal down inside the opening five minutes.

The Reds sloppily gave possession away in their own half, allowing Ibrahim Sangare to pick out Hudson-Odoi, who got the wrong side of Dominik Szoboszlai and raced in on goal, but saw his shot blocked by Alisson Becker.

You would not have known that Forest were in Europa League action at Fenerbahce less than 72 hours earlier and this was a performance unrecognisable from what was served up under Sean Dyche as they outplayed Slot's side, winning every duel and harassing their opponents into error after error.

Liverpool needed a vintage piece of defending from Virgil van Dijk to deny Igor Jesus shortly before the break as the centre-half got a crucial toe to the ball as the Brazilian was about to pull the trigger.

Elliot Anderson then curled just over after Forest had again swamped Liverpool and won the ball back.

Forest almost got the goal they deserved four minutes after the restart but Nikola Milenkovic flashed a header just wide.

It was inevitable that Liverpool could not continue to play as poorly as they had done and they enjoyed a decent spell.

They forced their first shot on target in the 54th minute when Jones turned Mohamed Salah's header goalwards but Forest goalkeeper Stefan Ortega blocked the shot.

That spell did not develop into any serious pressure and it was Forest who were pushing for a winner.

Yet, there was incredible drama at the end as Liverpool turned the match in their favour.

They thought they had won it in the 89th minute when Mac Allister scored without knowing anything about it.

Ortega saved Hugo Ekitike's header and as Ola Aina tried to clear the rebound, it crashed off Mac Allister and into the net.

However, VAR ruled that it hit his elbow and the goal was chalked off.

Liverpool, to their credit, kept going and were rewarded in the sixth minute of time added on when Mac Allister slammed home from close range after Van Dijk's header down.