Just when the modern Manchester United believed they had experienced all the most exquisitely painful ways to lose a game, so they were felled by one of their own. It was a goal from Anthony Elanga to stand comparison with the finest ever scored against the once dominant club of English football.
The unbeaten run of Ruben Amorim’s team stretching back previously seven games to February 22 is over. The clouds gather anew. But it was the manner of its ending, and the man who delivered it, that was the most jarring for United. Not just the United of April 2025 but the United of the last 12 years and all their many mistakes. They signed Elanga as a 12-year-old in 2014, the Swedish son of a former Cameroon international whose family had moved to Greater Manchester. They finessed him into a Premier League footballer and an international and then, in the tumult of another summer of change in 2023, they sold him for £13.5 million to a club United never supposed would be a threat to them.
ANTHONY ELANGA, THAT IS INCREDIBLE! ⚡
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 1, 2025
The winger scores a blistering solo goal against his former side 👏
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUKpic.twitter.com/9J38PnbMsV
That club, Nottingham Forest, now look well-placed in third for the Champions League next season. United are 13th. Forest play the kind of style preferred by their manager Nuno Espirito Santo, where possession is an optional extra, but between the two teams, Elanga was the most exciting attacker. By the end, with the game stretched, United’s players were reduced to sneaking fouls on him to stop the counter-attack. His pace is mind-boggling and perhaps that was all United thought he had when they sold him. Even if it was, on this night it was the difference between the two teams.
Of course, Amorim’s players had lots more of the ball. They had many more shots and, in Bruno Fernandes, they had the most accomplished player on the pitch – but even he was not able to lift the mediocrity of this team. Amorim had started without Rasmus Hojlund but brought him on at half-time. He put his faith in Joshua Zirkzee yet by the end, as United chased the equaliser, the Dutchman was also summoned to the bench after an ineffective evening. So many of United’s big-ticket signings – Zirkzee, Manuel Ugarte, Patrick Dorgu – were underwhelming. By contrast, Nuno teased another fine performance from his players.
Elanga was the great attraction but there was also a splendid evening for the local boy and captain Ryan Yates. His block on an Alejandro Garnacho shot in the second half was crucial. By the end Forest were hanging on to the lead given to them by Elanga in the fifth minute. They were effectively defending on their goal-line, but defend they did. The best United chance in those late stages fell to Harry Maguire, on as a substitute, and there to offer a threat from set-pieces.
