Nottingham Forest kept alive its Champions League qualification chances by beating West Ham 2-1 in the Premier League on a day Everton bade an emotional farewell to Goodison Park and Jamie Vardy scored a landmark goal on his last appearance for Leicester.
Seventh-placed Forest moved level on points Sunday with Manchester City in sixth and will likely need to beat Chelsea — in fourth place and also battling to get into the Champions League — in the final round of matches next weekend to secure a top-five finish.
That would be a remarkable achievement for Forest, which narrowly avoided relegation last season.
Morgan Gibbs-White and Nikola Milenkovic were the scorers for Forest at the Olympic Stadium, before West Ham mounted a late comeback and saw in-form forward Jarrod Bowen reduce the deficit.
Gibbs-White dedicated his goal to teammate Taiwo Awoniyi, who is recovering in the hospital from emergency abdominal surgery after colliding with a goalpost in a match last weekend.
The Forest captain held Awoniyi’s shirt up to the crowd after scoring, with the team having warmed up wearing shirts with Awoniyi’s name and No. 9 on the back — with a message on the front reading, “We’re all with you Taiwo."
Winning farewell to Goodison
Everton said goodbye to Goodison, its home of 133 years, with a 2-0 victory over Southampton thanks to two goals by Iliman Ndiaye.
Fans wept and former stars, like Wayne Rooney, took part in an "End of an Era" post-match party inside one of English soccer's classic stadiums that will continue to be in operation.
It will be the new home of Everton's women's team from next season, while the men's team is headed to a nearby 53,000-seat stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Vardy delivers on his big day
It was a special day, too, for Vardy, who was playing his 500th and last match for Leicester exactly 13 years to the day he joined from non-league Fleetwood Town.
He marked the occasion by scoring against Ipswich with his 200th goal for the club he famously helped to win the Premier League against the odds in 2016.
It was the first goal in Leicester's 2-0 win over Ipswich and Vardy was given a guard of honor by teammates when he was substituted in the 80th minute.
Fulham scored two goals in a three-minute span from 2-1 down to win 3-2 at Brentford, while second-placed Arsenal was hosting third-place Newcastle later.
Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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