A win for Newcastle United over Chelsea earlier in the day presented Forest with the chance to reclaim their place in the top five with a win here, and they made a fast start towards that goal.
Anthony Elanga found Chris Wood with a cross from either wing, but the striker – who had netted just once in his prior 10 Forest appearances – steered both efforts over the bar, the latter of which was a free header at the back post.
Such a gilt-edged miss would cost Forest just beyond the quarter-hour, when a period of Leicester pressure culminated in a long throw that was only cleared to Bilal El Khannouss, whose powerful strike from the edge of the area was parried by Matz Sels for Conor Coady to head home his first PL goal since October 2022.
The City Ground was stunned and with good reason, as their side had won just one of the 10 PL games they’d conceded first in this season.
Any fightback always looked likely to stem from the influential Elanga, and so it proved as his free-kick from the right was met by Morgan Gibbs-White, who headed into the ground across goal and into the far corner to restore parity.
Forest’s joint-league high 16th goal from a set-piece restored order somewhat, but they were unable to complete the turnaround before the break thanks to Jakub Stolarczyk’s impressive save to deny Nicolás Domínguez.
Forest began the second half in similar fashion to the first, pushing for the goal that would give them the lead for the first time in the match. Domínguez headed straight at Stolarczyk after a cross from the right broke kindly to him, before Leicester’s stand-in stopper was finally beaten by Wood.
The New Zealander registered his 100th PL goal involvement with a diving header at the back post from Gibbs-White’s inviting cross, with that his 20th league goal of the current campaign.
Leicester had offered precious little threat of their own in the second half, but as time ticked into the final 10 minutes, they struck a dagger through the hosts’ hearts. Facundo Buonanotte was the recipient of a loose ball outside the box, and he drove into the box, sidestepped Morato, and swept home the equaliser.
Forest were stunned, and failed to recover sufficiently to find a late winner, and even needed Sels to produce a stunning stop to deny Jeremy Monga from stealing victory for Leicester at the death.
As a result, the hosts miss out on a first double over Leicester since 1994/95 to leave them a point adrift of the top five with just two games left to play.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Anthony Elanga (Nottingham Forest)