Evangelos Marinakis breaks silence on Nuno Espirito Santo row and pins blame in statement

owner Evangelos Marinakis has issued a statement explaining why he confronted after the final whistle against . The bizarre exchange came after Forest were forced to share the spoils, conceding a late equaliser to their rivals. While it came as a bitter blow, a point was enough to ensure the Reds will be playing European football next season.

After the final whistle at the City Ground, Nuno was given a furious dressing-down by Marinakis . Marinakis stormed onto the pitch before appearing to berate his manager while throwing his arms around in frustration. He eventually walked away from the scene, leaving Nuno with a puzzled and slightly frustrated look on his face.

Marinakis has since issued a statement explaining his side of the story. He said the club's medical team were the source of his fury due to their handling of the late injury suffered by Taiwo Awoniyi, which left Forest a player short in the closing minutes.

"Today is a day for celebration because after 30 years Nottingham Forest is now guaranteed to be competing on the European stage once again, a promise I made to our supporters when we achieved promotion," wrote Marinakis.

"With two more games to go in the Premier League, we must keep believing and keep dreaming, right to the final kick in the final game.

"We are extremely proud and close to Nuno and the team, and we must all celebrate the historic achievements of this season.

"Everybody, coaching staff, players, supporters and including myself, were all frustrated around the injury of Taiwo and the medical staff's misjudgement on Taiwo's ability to continue the game.

"This is natural, this is a demonstration of the passion we feel for our club. Let's all be grateful, passionate and keep on dreaming."

Forest can still qualify for next season's Champions League despite missing a huge chance to put themselves in the driving seat against Leicester. If they had taken all three points, they would have been sat in fifth place, a point ahead of .

Instead, they find themselves in seventh and needing to make up lost ground to earn a top-five finish in the Premier League.

Nuno also commented on his exchange with Marinakis in his post-match interview, : "It was due to the situation and the confusion over the substitution of [Awoniyi]. We made a [different] sub and after that we played with one man less.

"That frustrates everyone. When a player is down, you get information that he is okay to continue, then we make a sub and it turns out he can't continue. We are all frustrated with that.

"Football is emotions. It's difficult to control, especially when we had so much expectation and the fans were incredible."