Oliver Glasner went back to Selhurst Park on Sunday, took a seat in the away dugout, and watched his old club pull off the kind of comeback he spent his time there teaching them to enjoy. Crystal Palace beat Nottingham Forest 3-1, and for the best part of forty minutes it looked like the afternoon would go the other way entirely.
Forest Fly Out of the Blocks
Dan Ndoye put the visitors ahead on three minutes with a tidy low finish, and from there Forest looked like the team that knew exactly where the home side were weak. Glasner, who won the FA Cup and the Conference League with Palace before leaving at the end of last season, had clearly not forgotten how they play. They pressed hard, found space behind the Palace back line and kept the ball moving quicker than the hosts could react.
The moment that should have made it two came just before the half-hour. Morgan Gibbs-White hit the crossbar, and Liam Delap, standing a few yards out when the rebound dropped, somehow saw his effort kept out by Walter Benitez. It was a save that reads as luck on a replay and looks a lot more like reflexes when you were sitting behind the goal.
Three Minutes Either Side of Half-Time
Five minutes later Palace were level. Daichi Kamada finished off a flowing team move on 41 minutes, Quinten Timber supplying the assist, for his first Premier League goal. Then, deep in stoppage time at the end of the half, Jefferson Lerma headed in a second from an Adam Wharton delivery, the ball going through the legs of Matz Sels.
Whether Lerma should get the credit is another matter. Replays suggested his header grazed the elbow of team-mate Anan Khalaili on its way in, and a goal cannot stand if the ball touches an arm. VAR found nothing clear enough to overturn it. Former assistant referee Darren Cann said the contact looked real on the replays but that VAR could not spend half an hour hunting for evidence, and he had a point. Forest have now been on the wrong end of two of these calls in recent weeks, after a Neco Williams goal was chalked off for handball against Spurs.
Yeremy Pino made it 3-1 on 59 minutes, sliding a finish into the bottom corner, and the home end started singing about the man in the away technical area. Benitez had one more important job to do, stopping substitute Chris Wood late on when a second Forest goal would have made the last ten minutes uncomfortable.
What It Means for Sage and Glasner
It was Palace's first home win of the season and only their second in the league, lifting them to 12th. Forest drop to 14th. Palace have now won six points from losing positions this season, more than any other side. For Pierre Sage, who had lost three of his first five games and was starting to feel the pressure, the display from the 41st minute onwards gives him something to point to. He was candid afterwards, saying they struggled a lot against a good team and that the win was what mattered. Next up is Lyon.
Glasner took the loss with a sort of weary humour. He told Sky Sports it was as if he did not deserve to win at Selhurst Park, and that his players had done everything asked of them. He also said, a touch more pointedly, that he had played many games at the ground and never seen a team create so many chances there. He was grateful to both sets of supporters, which is not something you often hear from the losing manager after a game like this. Forest will take some belief from the first half. They will also wish somebody had told Delap that Benitez was having one of those afternoons.
Match facts: Crystal Palace 3-1 Nottingham Forest (half-time 2-1), Premier League, Selhurst Park, Sunday 11 October 2026. Attendance 25,120. Goals: Ndoye 3' (Forest); Kamada 41', Lerma 45+4', Pino 59' (Palace). Palace manager: Pierre Sage. Forest manager: Oliver Glasner. Source reporting: BBC Sport.
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