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Ange Postecoglou, hands rooted in pockets, was stewing as he walked on the pitch at the final whistle, as What a Beautiful Day, an unofficial Swansea anthem, blared over the speakers. Swansea had just completed an utterly unthinkable, remarkable comeback to advance to the Carabao Cup fourth round at Nottingham Forest’s expense, the hosts scoring twice in six minutes of second-half stoppage time.
Igor Jesus scored his first Forest goals to earn Postecoglou’s side a two-goal lead but the Australian will have to wait a little longer for his first win in charge.
Postecoglou joked that Evangelos Marinakis’s statement about wanting to compete with the best and win trophies upon his arrival may as well have been attributed to him and this was the Forest manager’s first opportunity to signal his intent.
Nevertheless, Postecoglou, particularly mindful of the mileage some of his players covered during the international break, made 10 changes from his first game in charge, with the defender Morato the only survivor from the team that started last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at Arsenal, though here the Brazilian was more comfortable at centre-half.
There were debuts for Douglas Luiz, Oleksandr Zinchenko and John Victor and such was the comfort of the two-goal cushion at the interval, another debutant Jair Cunha and Arnaud Kalimuendo entered at half-time, the former preventing Igor Jesus from a hat-trick. There were first starts for Igor Jesus, Omari Hutchinson, Dilane Bakwa, Nicolò Savona and James McAtee.
Forest’s goals doubtless made particularly pleasing viewing for Edu, the global head of football for Marinakis’s stable of clubs tasked with overseeing recruitment. The opener stemmed from Bakwa squirting a diagonal pass from right to left in front of Hutchinson, who drove at the Swansea right-back Josh Key, who backpedalled into the box, and culminated in Igor Jesus’s strike cannoning in via the goalkeeper, Andy Fisher, and a post.
Forest’s second goal began inside their own half with Willy Boly and almost every outfield player was involved before Igor Jesus tapped into an empty net. Bakwa punched a pass into McAtee, who touched the ball round the corner for Savona. The Italian full-back fed an overlapping McAtee, who picked out Hutchinson at the back post and Forest’s £37.5m record signing unselfishly squared for Igor Jesus to do the rest.
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Forest’s changes seemed to hamper their momentum, though Kalimuendo saw a third Forest goal disallowed for offside. A few minutes later Postecoglou shook his head as Swansea’s Northern Ireland midfielder Ethan Galbraith, a summer signing from Leyton Orient, cantered past a handful of red shirts, earning a corner. Swansea prospered from there, Burgess beating Boly in the air to nod in Eom Ji-sung’s corner. It was nothing compared to what was to come, the substitute Zan Vipotnik equalising in the 93rd minute before Burgess thumped in a winner in the 97th.
