Nottingham Forest player ratings vs Wrexham, Substitutes star but 3/10 player can’t be picked again

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Nottingham Forest crashed out of the FA Cup on penalties as Wrexham wrote their own fairytale ending in Wales.

The Reds were pretty drab in the first half and fell behind when Liberato Cacace scored a brilliant goal from the edge of the penalty area.

Three minutes later, Oliver Rathbone added a second for the home side and on the stroke of half-time, it should have been three, but Matz Sels saved well from Sam Smith.

Forest made three subs at half-time and were handed a lifeline when Igor Jesus scored in the 64th minute.

However, Dom Hyam made it 3-1, with Callum Hudson-Odoi scoring a lovely goal almost immediately from the restart.

With the clock striking 90, Hudson-Odoi showcased his class when he took the ball down on his chest and fired an unstoppable effort into the bottom corner of the net.

After the game, we looked at how the Forest players performed and marked them out of 10.

Matz Sels – 5

Should definitely have saved the second goal, but did redeem himself on the stroke of half-time when he stopped Sam Smith from making it 3-0 to the hosts.

Nicolo Savona – 6

Lacks pace and was caused some problems by the Wrexham forwards, but on the whole, he coped well with whatever was thrown at him throughout the match.

Morato – 3

Another really concerning performance for the Brazilian, who seemingly doesn’t have a strong enough mentality to play at centre-back without one of Murillo or Nikola Milenkovic next to him. Upstaged by the youngster playing alongside him.

Jair Cunha – 6

A pretty mature performance from the youngster, making just his third appearance for the Reds at the heart of the back four. Should be pushing Morato for more minutes in the coming months.

Oleksandr Zinchenko – 6

Probably Zinchenko’s best performance for Forest, being truthful, but it still wasn’t enough to keep him on the pitch for the second half.

Douglas Luiz – 6

Poor positional sense from the Brazilian midfielder in the first half, who looked somewhat rusty to begin with. Settled well in the second half and was always keen to get on the ball.

James McAtee – 5

He was playing how he’s been coached by Pep Guardiola, dropping deep to get on the ball, but he was even deeper than Luiz, which proved ineffective for Forest.

Omari Hutchinson – 6

Not his best performance defensively. He was dispossessed in an area he should never have been in for the first Wrexham goal, and it’s time for Sean Dyche to figure out how to get him on the ball higher up the pitch more often. In the second half, he did outstandingly well to set up Callum Hudson-Odoi for the second goal.

Dan Ndoye – 4

Another pretty poor night for Ndoye, who looks erratic at best and poor when he’s really bad. Looked frightened to take his man on all night.

Dilane Bakwa – 5

Some good moments, and probably should have had an assist in the opening two minutes, but his tidy cross was spurned from close range by Jesus.

Igor Jesus – 5

Scored so gets a slightly higher mark, but lost Dominic Hyam far too easily for Wrexham’s third goal. In truth, it’s unfortunate that Jesus had to play in this one, and the striker does look as though he would welcome a rest in the coming weeks.

Substitutes

Morgan Gibbs-White – 6

The captain was introduced at the break and did try his best to get Forest going, linking up well with Jesus and Hutchinson throughout his 45-minute performance.

Neco Williams – 6

The player was born in Wrexham, and after being given a good reception by the home crowd, he tried hard to get Forest going and almost scored with around 10 minutes remaining.

Nicolas Dominguez – 6

Provided an injection of energy at half-time, and he played higher up the pitch. He was sometimes wasteful in possession as he tried to make things happen.

Callum Hudson-Odoi – 7

Forest looked much better going forward once Hudson-Odoi was introduced into the action, and his first goal was typical of his brilliance when he gets things right. His second was just sublime, looping his effort over the goalkeeper after taking the ball down on his chest. Sublime.