Matz Sels was Nottingham Forest‘s penalty hero yet again as they reached the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 34 years.
The Belgian goalkeeper saved spot-kicks from Jack Hinshelwood and Diego Gomez as Forest beat Brighton 4-3 on penalties after a goalless draw at the Amex Stadium to reach the last four for the first time since 1991.
In normal time, Brighton had most of the ball yet were doing very little with it, and Forest were happy to let them as efforts from Yasin Ayari and Pervis Estupinan were duly handled by Sels.
After the break, Brighton’s Georginio Rutter fired narrowly over from a corner and Hinshelwood headed another wide, while Verbruggen tipped a Morgan Gibbs-White piledriver over.
Brighton were clinging on as extra time approached with Gibbs-White inches from converting Elanga’s cross at the far post, and in stoppage time his goalbound header was hacked clear by Jan Paul van Hecke.
Extra time came and went with a header from Gomez pushed over by Sels the closest anyone came to forcing a winner.
In the shoot-out Sels saved from Hinshelwood, and although Williams blazed over, the visiting goalkeeper blocked from Gomez before skipper Ryan Yates sent Forest through.
In the earlier game, Eberechi Eze was the difference maker as Crystal Palace booked their trip to Wembley with a 3-0 win over Fulham.
Palace’s number 10 opened the scoring with a brilliant effort before he assisted Ismaila Sarr for his side’s second at Craven Cottage.
Eddie Nketiah came off the bench to add a third as Palace claimed a fifth successive win in all competitions.
Next month’s semi-final will mark Palace’s first trip to Wembley since they lost to Chelsea at the same stage of the FA Cup in 2022.
