Anton Stach scored Leeds United’s 88th-minute winner at Nottingham Forest in the 2026–27 Premier League opener.
Leeds won 1–0 at the City Ground on 22 August 2026, beginning the new season with a second successive opening-match victory. Stach’s late free-kick was the only goal of the game.
The German midfielder’s set piece was notable because it came from outside the penalty area. Since the beginning of the previous season, Stach had scored five goals from outside the box, more than any other player in the relevant Premier League comparison.
Stach’s goal also placed him alongside Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai in a specialised statistic: both players had four direct free-kick goals in that period. That comparison concerns direct free kicks, not all goals scored from set pieces.
The result was a difficult start for Nottingham Forest and new manager Oliver Glasner. Forest had won only one of their previous 12 Premier League home matches, making the home defeat part of a wider poor run at the City Ground.