Nottingham Forest will be bidding to end a 27-year streak when they square off against Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
The East Midlands outfit head into Saturday’s showdown at the Amex Stadium with their focus very much on achieving Champions League qualification through their position in the Premier League table.
A fixture at home to Manchester United on Tuesday night may be viewed as the priority by Nuno Espirito Santo, who is expected to name a weakened starting lineup.
Nevertheless, that will not stop Forest from going all out to secure progress to the semi-finals of this competition for the first time since 1991.
Furthermore, Forest can also end a 27-year run if they achieve a specific feat in the game on the South coast.
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What streak can be ended?
Forest have the opportunity to move into double figures when it comes to goals scored against Brighton during the 2024-25 campaign.
As well as earning a 2-2 draw on away territory earlier in the season, Forest stormed to a 7-0 victory over the Seagulls as recently as February 1.
Not since they scored 10 goals across a two-legged League Cup tie with Doncaster Rovers in 1997-98 have Forest pulled off that feat.
In the same conversation, Brighton are also looking to avoid conceding 10 goals against one club in the same season for the first time since 1980-81 when they shipped 10 strikes versus Manchester United.
Curiously, this is the first-ever meeting between these two clubs in the FA Cup.
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Would both teams fancy themselves in a penalty shootout?
With a trip to Wembley Stadium at stake, it is fair to say that both sets of supporters would not relish a penalty shootout on Saturday evening.
However, Forest have progressed from their last three penalty shootouts in FA Cup ties, all of which have come in their last five ties, and they remain unbeaten in four penalty shootouts in the competition.
Should they prevail via that route on Saturday, they would equal the all-time record of five penalty shootouts won without ever losing, held by Macclesfield Town and Stevenage.
Meanwhile, since March 2019, Brighton have won two of their three shootouts in the FA Cup, albeit notably losing to Man United in the semi-finals in 2023.
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