LEICESTER PROMOTED TO PREMIER LEAGUE AFTER LEEDS CRASH TO HEAVY DEFEAT AT QPR

Across 90 raucous minutes in west London Leeds lost control of this crucial game and with it their future.

They hoped this would be another step on a sprint to promotion but instead they stumbled, and QPR’s emphatic and fully deserved victory not only secured their own place in the Championship it also promoted Leicester, who will travel to Preston on Monday in the knowledge that their return to the Premier League at the first attempt is certain.

Related: A Premier League return is the only certainty in Leicester’s cloudy future

Should Ipswich win their two games in hand by the time Leeds next play, at home to Southampton next Saturday, they will already be preparing for the playoffs.

With the visitors weakened by injury and bizarrely becalmed for much of the match – to take nothing away from QPR’s skilful and spirited performance – Ilias Chair and Lucas Andersen put the Hoops in control by half-time. Headers from Lyndon Dykes and Sam Field, both from Chair set pieces, sealed their most emphatic win of a season in which they had never previously won by more than two.

This was always a deceptively difficult test, with QPR’s form over several months far from that of a relegation-threatened team. If Leeds had been propelled apparently to the verge of another upwards scramble in their game of long-term snakes and ladders by a run of exceptional results since the turn of the year, under Martí Cifuentes QPR conjured a similar surge to stave off the serpents. Leeds may be comfortably top of a notional 2024 Championship table but the Hoops are very much among the promotion-chasers.

The visitors’ chances were further hit by Patrick Bamford failing a late fitness test on a bruised knee, the striker joining Daniel James, who sustained muscle and cartilage injury in Monday’s win over Middlesbrough that might have ended his season, on the sidelines.

They still boasted the brilliant Crysencio Summerville, by general acclaim the Championship’s player of the season, but as the contest roared high-octane action it was the player on the other team’s left flank who stood out. The game was in only its eighth minute when Chair carried the ball into Leeds’ half, allowed their defence to be distracted by Kenneth Paal’s overlapping run, cut inside and sent in a shot from 20 yards that clipped Joe Rodon’s shoulder and deflected beyond Illan Meslier.

By then the home side had established their ascendancy. Rangers started excellently, and the alarm bells should have been clanging for Leeds a couple of minutes before the opener. Chris Willock won the ball well inside his own half and surged stylishly if a little too frictionlessly past a succession of half-hearted challenges until, just outside the Leeds penalty area, he overhit his pass to Dykes. Nine minutes after the opening goal Andersen’s left-wing free-kick dropped to Chair, 15 yards out and unmarked, whose half-volley flew over the bar.

In the 22nd minute QPR extended their lead following a throw-in on the right. Willock’s cross hit a defender and with the crowd still howling for a handball the former Arsenal midfielder passed back to Andersen, who befuddled Ilia Gruev with a drop of the shoulder, cut infield and curled an unstoppable shot into the far corner.

Leeds recovered to dominate the final quarter-hour of the opening half and created two good chances with crosses from the right. The first fell to an unmarked Summerville at the far post, who with time and space to pick his spot chose Asmir Begovic’s chest, and the second to Georginio Rutter at the near, who tried and emphatically failed to control the ball instead of shooting first-time.

Related: QPR 4-0 Leeds United: Championship – live reaction

Beyond that Summerville volley the only thing Begovic had to do in the first half, beyond catching a few crosses, was a fine if fairly routine low stop from Joël Piroe’s left-footed shot in the 13th minute. And though Leeds started the second period with a bit more vigour, they struggled to translate it into a genuine goal threat.

In the 51st minute a low cross from the right was prevented from reaching Rutter only by an excellent, stretching intervention from Steve Cook and within seconds a centre from the left did reach the Frenchman, who from an excellent position eight yards from goal swung his left foot as if it belonged to a complete stranger and sent the ball bobbling wide.

By the time Begovic was forced to make a genuinely outstanding save, deflecting the ball wide with the heel of his right foot after the substitute Mateo Joseph had turned Junior Firpo’s 66th-minute cross goalwards, the referee had become so used to Leeds failing to hit the target that he gave a goal kick.

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2024-04-26T21:29:16Z dg43tfdfdgfd