Awoniyi, Dennis On Song As Nottingham Forest End Tour With Win At Valencia

Awoniyi, Dennis On Song As Nottingham Forest End Tour With Win At Valencia 

Nigeria international duo of Taiwo Awoniyi and Emmanuel Dennis inspired Nottingham Forest to happy ending of their mid season break as both scored in the 2-1 friendly win against Valencia.

The friendly encounter which took place at the Mestalla Stadium was the last tune up game for Stephen Cooper side before getting into competitive mode for the remainder of the season.

Valencia dominated early parts of the game but without clear-cut chances, however Taiwo Awoniyi surged forward before locating Ryan Yates who forced a save off Giorgi Mamardashvili 10 minutes before the break.

On the brink of half time, Forest took the lead as Awoniyi pounced on a loose ball after Lingard pressured the Valencia defence into a mistake, before calmly getting past Mamardashvili and slot the ball home into the empty net.

The hosts tried to respond quickly to the goal, however, Samuel Castillejo’s left foot effort was well held by Henderson.

Valencia continued their strong start to the second half on 51 minutes as Toni Lato squared the ball for Marcos André who fired over the crossbar when well placed inside the box.

The Gennaro Gattuso side would soon find the equalizer in the 51st minutes off a counter attack finished with Fran Perez squaring for Hugo Duro to slot the ball past Henderson from close range.

Cooper brought in Emmanuel Dennis and Gustavo Scarpa to the action on the hour mark, replacing Awoniyi and Lingard and the newly introduced duo combined well to get the winner for the Forest with Dennis’ goal.

Despite a late pressure from Valencia, Forest saw out four minutes of additional time to claim the victory in Spain, a perfect precursor for Cooper’s side ahead of next Wednesday’s return to competitive action away at Blackburn Rovers in the Carabao Cup.

Both Awoniyi and Dennis have had a bit part involvement to Forest this campaign. However, their performances during the winter break may convince Cooper to give them more important roles in the final leg of the season.

-Nigeriafootball.ng