QPR thrash Leeds to clinch Championship survival in style West ...
QPR thrashed promotion-chasing Leeds to clinch Championship survival in style.
Ilias Chair, Lucas Andersen, Lyndon Dykes and Sam Field scored on a fantastic night for Rangers at Loftus Road.
Two goals in the opening 22 minutes set them on the way to the win they needed.
Chair got the opener, cutting in from the left and trying his luck with a shot which took a deflection off Leeds defender Joe Rodon and ended up in the bottom corner of the net.
Andersen doubled the lead with his first goal since arriving in west London in February.
It came after Leeds failed to clear Andersen’s throw-in. The Dane collected Chris Willock’s pass on the right-hand side of the penalty area, worked the ball onto his left foot and fired into the far corner.
Dykes made it three with a near-post header from Chair’s left-wing corner
And Field scored via another Chair set-piece – a header from a precisely-delivered free-kick from the right.
Staying up with a match to spare represents an excellent turnaround for Rangers under Marti Cifuentes.
They were second bottom of the table, six points from safety and had lost six matches in a row when the Spaniard took over as boss at the end of October following the sacking of Gareth Ainsworth.
Leeds’ defeat also sealed Leicester’s promotion back to the Premier League.
QPR: Begovic; Dunne, Cook, Clarke-Salter (Fox 80), Paal; Colback (Hayden 80), Field; Willock (Hayden 80), Andersen (Smyth 59), Chair; Dykes (Armstrong 88).Subs not used: Walsh, Dixon-Bonner, Cannon, Larkeche.