Forest getting close to the Champions League after another win but struggling City held by Brighton

Champions League qualification is getting tantalizingly close for Nottingham Forest.

For Manchester City, there's still plenty of work to do.

Forest, a team many might have thought would be battling relegation this season in the Premier League, moved just a point behind second-place Arsenal by beating Ipswich 4-2 on Saturday.

More importantly perhaps for Forest, the gap to City grew to six points after the soon-to-be-deposed champions drew 2-2 at home to Brighton.

City is hanging onto fifth place, which is likely to be the final Champions League qualification position from the Premier League for next season.

Certainly any ambitions for a record-extending fifth straight league title are long gone for City, which is 22 points behind first-place Liverpool with nine games left.

City twice took the lead in the first half, through Erling Haaland's penalty and Omar Marmoush's fierce outside-of-the-area shot, but was pegged back each time by an opponent also in contention to get into the Champions League.

An own-goal by Abdukodir Khusanov in the 48th ultimately clinched a point for Brighton, which is only a point behind City and could easily have come away from at Etihad Stadium with all three points. Carlos Baleba blasted over the bar from close range with a great late chance for the visitors

“I came from the locker room and it’s a disappointing feeling," Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler said.

City has won just two of its last six league games and already has conceded 40 league goals, its most in a single campaign in Pep Guardiola's nine seasons at the club.

“That’s because of something missing,” said Guardiola, who acknowledged that he could sense a nervousness in the crowd.

“Yes definitely,” he said. “Everybody feels the pressure."

Anthony Elanga scored twice for Forest, whose other goals came from Nikola Milenkovic and Jota Silva in the latest win on its march back to Europe's top competition.

Forest famously won the European Cup in 1979 and ’80 under Brian Clough and is close to returning to the competition under Nuno Espirito Santo, who had to steer the team away from relegation danger after being hired midway through last season.

Nuno wasn't getting carried away, though.

“You know what I think about the table,” he said. “What we have (to do) is to focus on ourselves, focus on ourselves. Work as much as we can because there is a lot of football to be played yet."

Ipswich, in third-to-last place, dropped nine points adrift of safety after Wolverhampton — the team directly above the relegation zone — won 2-1 at last-place Southampton.

Jørgen Strand Larsen scored both of Wolves' goals.

Leicester, which is tied for points with Ipswich in 19th place, hosts Manchester United on Sunday and Southampton is destined for the drop a further eight points back.

Bournemouth had been another unheralded team in contention for Champions League qualification but is starting to fade, dropping to ninth with a 2-1 home loss to Brentford.

Bournemouth hasn't won any of its last four league games, or five in all competitions, though is still only four points behind Man City — its opponent in the FA Cup quarterfinals at the end of the month.

Everton scored in stoppage time through Jake O'Brien to salvage a 1-1 draw at home to West Ham.

Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford reacts to a defensive clearance during the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and West Ham, at Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, Saturday March 15, 2025. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)

Wolverhampton Wanderers' Jorgen Strand Larsen, left, celebrates scoring their side's second goal of the game during the English Premier League soccer match between Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers at St. Mary's Stadium, Southampton, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP)

Manchester City's Erling Haaland scores his side's opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Manchester City's Omar Marmoush, left, attempts a shot at goal in front of Brighton's Adam Webster to scores his side's second goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Manchester City's Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Nottingham Forest's Nikola Milenkovic scores their side's first goal of the game during the English Premier League soccer match between Ipswich Town and Nottingham Forest at Portman Road, Ipswich, England, Saturday March 15, 2025. (John Walton/PA via AP)

Manchester City's Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Manchester City's Erling Haaland, right, celebrates with his teammate Omar Marmoush after scoring his side's opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

ROME (AP) — Dozens of children toting yellow and white balloons gathered outside Rome’s Gemelli hospital to greet Pope Francis on his fifth Sunday hospitalized with double pneumonia. While the pope did not appear from the 10th-floor suite of windows, he acknowledged their presence in the traditional Sunday blessing.

“I know that many children are praying for me; some of them came here today to Gemelli as a sign of closeness,’’ the pontiff said in the Angelus text prepared for the traditional prayer but not delivered live again.

“Thank you, dearest children! The pope loves you and is always waiting to meet you,’’ Francis said.

The Rev. Fortunato, the president of the pontifical committee for World Children's Day who organized the event, said that the gathering of children with their parents was as a form of spiritual medicine for the 88-year-old pontiff, calling it ‘’the most beautiful caress.’’

“The children represent a symbolic medicine for Pope Francis,’’ Fortunato said. ‘’Letting him know that so many children are here for him cheers the heart.’’

They included 20 children accompanied by the St. Egidio charity and 50 children accompanied by UNICEF.

The pope typically delivers the Angelus from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square to the gathered faithful, who have grown more numerous due to the Jubilee year that Francis inaugurated in December.

In the written text, Francis said he was thinking of others, who like him, are in a fragile state. “Our bodies are weak, but even like this, nothing can prevent us from loving, praying, giving ourselves, being for each other, in faith, shining signs of hope,’’ the pope said.

Along with a stop at St. Peter’s to seek indulgences by walking through the basilica’s Holy Door, pilgrims are now also adding a stop at Gemelli, a 15-minute train ride from the Vatican.

Doctors this week said the pontiff was no longer in critical, life-threatening condition, but they have continued to emphasize that his condition remained complex due to his age, lack of mobility and the loss of part of a lung as a young man.

Still, they are issuing fewer medical bulletins as the pontiff has been on an upward trajectory. An X-ray this week confirmed that the infection was clearing.

Francis has not been seen publicly since he was admitted to the hospital Feb. 14 after a bout of bronchitis that made it difficult for him to speak. Doctors soon added a diagnosis of double pneumonia and a polymicrobial (bacterial, viral and fungal) infection.

The first three weeks of his hospitalization were marked by a rollercoaster of setbacks, including respiratory crises, mild kidney failure and a severe coughing fit.

Doctors in the most recent medical update on Saturday said they were working to reduce the pope’s nighttime reliance on the non-invasive ventilation mask, which will allow his lungs to work more.

Doctors underlined that while the pope’s condition is stable, he still requires hospitalization for treatment along with physical and respiratory therapy, which are “showing further gradual improvements,” the Vatican said Saturday in the first medical update in three days.

The next update won’t be issued until the middle of next week, the Vatican said.

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Associated Press writer Francesca Primavilla contributed to this report.

Faithful pray in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, during a vigil rosary for the recovery of Pope Francis, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Rosaries are seen next to a drawing of Pope Francis outside the Agostino Gemelli polyclinic in Rome, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Samantha Brasini, of Italy, kneels in front of the statue of Pope John Paul II as she prays for Pope Francis outside the Agostino Gemelli polyclinic in Rome, Italy, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

People pray for Pope Francis in front of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, in Rome, Saturday, March 15, 2025, where the Pontiff is hospitalized since Feb. 14. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)