Nottingham Forest started the 2025/26 season with a 3-1 emphatic victory over Brentford on the city. For Forest’s goalkeeper coach Rui Barbosa, it was a day to forget, although he may already have it.
After Chris Wood opened the score just five minutes from the game, Barbosa celebrated Salla, jumping from his seat, only to break his head directly on the mouth, leaving him bleeding strongly.
The Portuguese coach quickly attended medical staff, with Forest’s main coach Nuno Esperito Santo, revealing after the game Barbosa needed points to fix a significant cut in his head.
“He has six points!” Said Santo. “It was unpleasant. A bad. He dizzy.”
As for the rest of the game, which saw Forest 3-0 in the middle of the time thanks to a Wood bracelet and an impressive Summer Summer Signing Dan Ndoye, Santo was not excited.
“I’m delighted,” he said after the game. “The way we started the game was incredible. We played well, we dominated, we controlled the goal in the first five minutes that the team established and the energy of the stadium.”
One thing is safe: Barbosa certainly felt that the energy – and the strong end of the mouth – more than most.
