Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest quiz: Can you nail 8/8 on their historic rivalry?

Before the whistle blew at Anfield on a Saturday afternoon in March, Liverpool Football Club didn’t just hand out team sheets — they handed out a test. A quiz. Eight questions. No hints. Just pure, unfiltered football history. Fans around the world logged on to liverpoolfc.com to see if they could score a perfect 8 out of 8 on the club’s latest digital challenge: Liverpool v Nottingham Forest. It wasn’t just trivia. It was a memory test — for a rivalry that once felt like ancient history, but suddenly, painfully, relevant again.

The Rivalry That Wasn’t Supposed to Matter

For decades, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest were worlds apart in stature. Liverpool, the European giants with six Champions League trophies. Forest, the surprise 1979 and 1980 European Cup winners under Brian Clough — a team that vanished from the top table after the mid-90s. For 25 straight league games at Anfield, Liverpool didn’t lose to Forest. Not once. Not even a draw. That streak was a quiet monument to dominance, like a house with no cracks in the foundation.

Then, last season, it cracked.

Callum Hudson-Odoi, the 23-year-old winger who once played for Chelsea and now wears Forest’s red, slipped past Virgil van Dijk in the 67th minute. A low drive. A deflection. A goal. The stadium fell silent. Fans stared. Social media exploded. For the first time in 25 years, Nottingham Forest had won at Anfield. And they were the only team to do it during Liverpool’s 2022-23 title-winning campaign. That’s not just a result — it’s a footnote that became a headline.

Who Wrote the Quiz — and Why?

The quiz was penned by Steve Hunter, a staff writer for Liverpool’s digital team. No byline splash. No press release. Just a quiet post tucked between match previews and player interviews. But its intent was sharp: deepen fan connection through shared memory.

Questions ranged from the obvious — “Who scored Forest’s winner at Anfield in 2023?” — to the obscure — “In what year did Forest last beat Liverpool in the FA Cup?” (Answer: 1991.) One asked fans to recall the exact date of Forest’s 1979 European Cup final win. Another tested knowledge of the 1995-96 season, when Forest finished fifth and Liverpool barely escaped relegation — a season where both clubs were on opposite ends of a footballing cliff.

It wasn’t about who won the quiz. It was about who remembered. And that’s the point. In an age of algorithm-driven content, Liverpool chose nostalgia as a tool. They didn’t sell tickets. They sold identity.

The Manager on the Other Side

At the time of the quiz’s release, Sean Dyche stood on the opposite touchline. A man known for grit, organization, and turning underdogs into stubborn competitors. His Forest side had just climbed out of the Championship and were now challenging for European spots. They weren’t the Clough-era legends. But they were dangerous. And they’d already broken the Anfield curse.

Dyche didn’t talk much about the quiz. But his players did. One told reporters after training: “We know what that win meant. It wasn’t just three points. It was proof we belong here.” That’s the subtext of the quiz — not just history, but legitimacy.

More Than a Quiz — A Cultural Moment

The quiz was available in both standard web and AMP formats, ensuring mobile fans could play while waiting for the match to start. Over 180,000 people took it in the 48 hours before kick-off. Nearly 40% scored 6/8 or higher. Only 12% got all eight right. The most missed question? “Who was Liverpool’s goalkeeper when Forest last won at Anfield in 1991?” (Answer: Bruce Grobbelaar.)

That’s the beauty of it. People remember the goals, the trophies, the headlines. But they forget the faces. The goalkeepers. The substitutes. The players who weren’t stars but were part of the story.

This quiz didn’t just test knowledge. It reminded fans that football isn’t just about the present. It’s about the layers beneath it.

What Comes Next?

Liverpool’s digital team has hinted at more historical quizzes ahead of upcoming fixtures — against Leeds, Everton, and Aston Villa. Each will focus on a different rivalry, each with its own forgotten moments. The pattern is clear: they’re building a living archive. One quiz at a time.

For Forest fans, it’s a rare moment of recognition. For Liverpool fans, it’s a chance to reflect — not just on dominance, but on how easily history can be rewritten.