Forest defeat Hertha in friendly
A cheerful atmosphere greeted both teams at Burton Albion’s Pirelli Stadium as they kicked off an evening friendly in the sun. The action started after just three minutes as Hertha goalkeeper Rune Jarstein denied former FC Union striker Taiwo Awoniyi – the Dane could not prevent Nottingham Forest taking the lead a few minutes later, though. A well-worked free kick from the Premier League side gave Lyle Taylor a tap-in for 1-0 on nine minutes. The Blue-Whites’ first shot in anger came from Vladimír Darida after around a quarter of an hour, but Dean Henderson dealt with it easily. Not long after that, another Taylor goal – Jarstein spilled a through ball under pressure and the Forest striker finished well from around 20 yards (20’). Henderson then produced a fine stop to deny the electric Derry Scherhant from the edge of the box – the Hertha youngster had created the chance on his own with some fine play (28’). Sandro Schwarz’s side generally had more possession and held their own in the tackles, but had to watch out for the long balls pumped upfield by Steve Cooper’s side. Just before half time, a flurry of chances for Hertha led to them reducing the arrears. Following chances for Tousart and Scherhant (40’, 43’), Marvin Plattenhardt whipped in a delicious free-kick cross from the left and the young attacker was left unmarked to power a header home from 10 yards (45’).
There were a total of nine changes from Schwarz at half time: goalkeeper Jarstein and goalscorer Scherhant stayed on the pitch, but the rest of the team was fresh for the second 45. There were chances at both ends, too: Jonjoe Kenny’s effort flew over the bar before some good group pressure denied Brennan Johnson (54’, 60’). Kenny was involved shortly after as he was played in by Dongjun Lee – the Englishman’s cross found Scherhant’s head once again, but he was only able to test Henderson (62’). Unfortunately, there was an injury concern towards the end of the game, as Lee went off injured. He was replaced by Julian Eitschberger with 10 to go. With 82 minutes on the clock, chances for Selke and Kenny failed to find the target, before a third Forest goal. Lukas Ullrich looked to tap a cross behind for a corner, but misjudged and ended up finding the bottom corner of his own net. That made it 3-1; the final score on a balmy evening in the east Midlands.
Nottingham Forest: Henderson – Worrall (C) (63’ Biancone), Niakhaté (63’ Cook), McKenna (63’ Mbe Soh) – Williams (63’ Donnelly), Colback (63’ Fewster), Cafú (63’ Hammond), Johnson (63’ Ojeda), Toffolo (63’ Laryea) – Awoniyi (63’ Mighten), Taylor (63’ D. Taylor)
Hertha BSC (First half): Jarstein – Pekarík, Boyata (C), Dárdai, Plattenhardt – Sunjić, Tousart, Darida – Lukébakio, Piątek, Scherhant
Hertha BSC (Second half): Jarstein – Kenny, Gechter, Kempf, Ullrich – Lee (80‘ Eitschberger), Boateng (C), Zeefuik, Serdar – Scherhant, Selke
Goals: 1-0 Taylor (9‘), 2-0 Taylor (20‘), 2-1 Scherhant (45‘), 3-1 Ullrich (84‘, O.G)