Joao Carvalho turned on the style in the EFL Cup as Nottingham Forest beat Premier League opponents Newcastle United.
Nottingham Forest appear to be following in Wolverhampton Wanderers’ footsteps, enlisting the help of super-agent Jorge Mendes in an attempt to end their 20-year Premier League exile.
But the exciting Portuguese starlets Mendes brought to the City Ground, Gil Dias and Joao Carvalho, have taken time to get going. Until now that is.
Dias and Carvalho produced their finest displays in a Forest shirt during the 3-1 EFL Cup win against Premier League side Newcastle United on Wednesday.
It was Monaco loanee Dias who clinched an eye-catching victory with a delicate chip in the 97th minute but Carvalho was arguably the star of the show.
The Portuguese number 10 was the best player on the pitch against Rafa Benitez’s ragtag bunch, pulling the strings brilliantly and almost scoring with a wonderful long-range effort which Karl Darlow pawed away at full stretch.
It was a far cry from a couple of ineffective displays in the Championship and reminded everyone why Forest shattered their transfer record and paid £13 million to sign him from Benfica. The scary thing is, Carvalho is only going to get better.
And the fans cannot wait until he does.
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