Oliver Glasner's Tough Opening as Nottingham Forest Coach
Oliver Glasner stepped out first. Before a ball was kicked, before the noise truly rose, Nottingham Forest’s new head coach – their fifth in under a year – walked into the light of the home technical area and took it all in. A new season, a new man in charge, the promise of a reset.
Ninety minutes later, he stood with cheeks puffed and arms folded as every outfield Leeds player sprinted away to celebrate in front of a jubilant away end. The script had been torn up.
Stach steals it at the death
With the game drifting towards a goalless stalemate and chances rationed, Anton Stach decided he had seen enough. A clumsy foul by Nikola Milenkovic on the edge of the area handed Leeds one last look at goal. Stach took it.
He whipped his free-kick towards the near post, catching Matz Sels cold. The Forest goalkeeper got something on it, but not enough, his body ending up tangled around his right post as the ball squeezed in. Behind him, the Leeds fans exploded, bathed in evening sun and disbelief that such a tight contest had finally cracked.
Forest’s players slumped. Glasner stared straight ahead. So much for a smooth opening night.
Leeds carry the greater threat
This was not a smash-and-grab. Leeds had looked sharper, more coherent, and more dangerous for long spells.
In the first half, Harry Wilson thought he had marked his debut with a goal, only for the assistant’s flag to cut short the celebrations. Wilson had darted in behind to collect Jayden Bogle’s pass and finished, only to turn and see the raised flag. A warning for Forest, and a glimpse of the intent behind Leeds’s recruitment.
After the break, another newcomer, Tarik Muharemovic, almost made his own mark. The £34m signing from Sassuolo rose to meet a cross and powered a header towards the top corner, only for Sels to throw up a strong left hand and claw it away. It was a fine save, one that briefly looked as though it might earn Forest a point.
Leeds kept coming. They controlled territory, they controlled tempo, and they allowed Forest little more than isolated moments rather than sustained pressure.
Forest’s flashes, and a flat finish
Those moments did arrive, but rarely with conviction. Muharemovic, excellent at the back alongside Joe Rodon and Jaka Bijol in Leeds’s three-man defence, helped keep Forest’s attacks at arm’s length.
Glasner, who left big-money signing Ousmane Diomande and Xaver Schlager out of his starting XI, watched his side struggle to knit together anything truly incisive. When they finally did threaten, it came from a scruffy, improvised sequence rather than a flowing move.
Just before half-time, Neco Williams met an Ola Aina cross from the right, drawing applause from his new head coach. The ball was recycled, James McAtee swung it back in, and Milenkovic and Jair Cunha combined to send a header against James Trafford’s post. For a few seconds, the City Ground stirred, believing the breakthrough had arrived.
It never did. Trafford remained largely untested, Leeds’s structure rarely cracked, and as the minutes ticked away, Forest retreated into themselves.
When Stach’s free-kick finally broke them, the home stands emptied quickly. The away section stayed put, roaring their players off the pitch, basking in a statement win to open the campaign.
Forest get no time to dwell. Leeds are back here on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup. Glasner has already had a brutal introduction to the job. The question now is how quickly he can turn that painful first act into something more convincing.
