Nottingham Forest's Dean Henderson was the hero as he saved two penalties in a shootout against Wolves to advance his team to the Carabao Cup semi final.
After the game ended 1-1 in regulation, Forest won 4-3 thanks to saves from on-loan Manchester United goalkeepers Ruben Neves and Joe Hodge.
A mass brawl broke out on the field after the penalty shootout, which is sure to get both clubs in trouble. Willy Boly had given Forest the lead against his former team, but Raul Jimenez had leveled things up after the break.
Forest is in the final four of a competition they hold dear to their hearts because they have won it four times. Now that they will play one of Manchester United, Newcastle, or Southampton in the two-leg final four match, a return to Wembley looks very likely.
After making 10 changes for the FA Cup loss at Blackpool on Saturday, Steve Cooper went back to his strongest starting lineup, and it was immediately evident that they intended to try and advance. With Morgan Gibbs-White cutting back for Gustavo Scarpa, they got off to an exciting start, but Wolves managed to hold on.
Two Molineux alumni scored the goal in the 18th minute to give Forest a well-deserved lead. Boly was there to score from close range after Gibbs-White sent in a dangerous corner that was deflected onto the crossbar.
Boly refrained from celebrating, out of respect for the team he played for nearly 150 times over the course of five years, but the crowd at City Ground made up for it. Henderson was a spectator for the first 35 minutes of the game, but the loan goalkeeper showed his value by making two saves in quick succession to keep his team at bay.
After Wolves had opened up Forest, he made two excellent saves: first, he went down brilliantly to stop Jonny's low attempt, and second, he stayed big to swat away Jimenez's shot from 12 yards.
Four minutes later, as Wolves started to consistently threaten, an even better stop occurred. They made a break down the right, and Jimenez crossed for Hee-Chan Hwang, but Henderson pawed away the South Korean's initial attempt.
Forest seized control after the restart after weathering the storm before the interval and had opportunities to increase their lead. After jinking into the area to retrieve a loose ball, Gibbs-White forced Jose Sa into a low save. The former Wolves player then passed the ball back to Serge Aurier, whose shot was blocked.
Wolves' equalizer in the 64th minute made Forest regret not converting on one of those opportunities. Matheus Cunha, who had just been on for six minutes, delivered a ball across goal that Jimenez could not miss after they pushed the ball out to the right.
An attempted pass inside the zone bounced off Nelson Semedo and onto the post, forcing Forest to reorganize and come dangerously close to regaining the lead.
Late in the game, after Emmanuel Dennis and Cunha collided, Wolves thought they should have been awarded a penalty. However, referee Graham Scott waved away their protests, setting off a brawl between the two teams and earning visiting manager Julen Lopetegui a booking.
As a result, the game went into a shootout and was ultimately settled there and then.
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