The lowdown on Luton 1 QPR 2 – Rangers register first league win thanks to second-half comeback

QPR recovered from a half-time deficit against Luton Town to win 2-1 at Kenilworth Road and earn their first league victory of the season.

Here is Dan Evans’ lowdown on the match.

THE LINE-UPS

QPR: Nardi, Dunne, Cook, Clarke-Salter, Paal, Field, Colback (Varane 74), Dembele (Saito 83), Madsen (Andersen 74), Lloyd (Smyth 57), Frey (Celar 83). Subs not used: Walsh, Morrison, Santos, Dixon-Bonner

Luton: Kaminski, Burke (Mengi h/t), McGuinness (Taylor 75), Bell, Walters, Baptiste (Nelson 84), Clark, Doughty, Morris, Adebayo, Chong (Walsh 75). Subs not used: Shea, Holmes, Ruddock Mpanzu, Nakamba, Woodrow

SNAPSHOT OF THE GAME

QPR found the perfect response to falling behind to a first-half Jimmy Dunne own goal to earn their first league win of the season.

Dunne invertedly turned into his own net after Paul Nardi had kept out a Mark McGuinness header, and Nardi had to save well from Elijah Adebayo early in the second half to keep Rangers in the contest.

Frey turned the game on its head with an assist and a goal in the space of three minutes, capping a great individual performance.

He chased down a long ball to set up Nicolas Madsen for his first goal in English football.

Frey then volleyed home at the back post to ensure the three points travelled back to west London with Marti Cifuentes’ side.

TACTICAL APPROACH

Cifuentes made seven changes from the team that beat Luton in the EFL Cup on Tuesday, largely switching back to the side that drew with Plymouth in the previous Championship fixture.

There were some notable changes though, most obviously the use of recent signing Madsen in the no 10 role behind Frey.

Madsen played in a deeper midfield role against Argyle, and he largely struggled to impact proceedings against a physical Luton side on Friday night.

However, a tactical switch from Cifuentes saw the Dane shifted to a position on the left of midfield and within minutes he had arrived in the box from that position to tap in Frey’s pass and level the game.

Having struggled to control possession due to the home side’s aggressive pressing, the equaliser seemed to settle QPR and they went on to find the winning goal with relative ease.

They had to defend their box bravely in the closing minutes, with Steve Cook and Jake Clarke-Salter once again proving how good a partnership they are at the heart of the defence.

STAR MAN

Michael Frey. He had good moments in the first half but was all too often left hopelessly chasing long balls over the top as the Luton backline pushed up high. However, he did brilliantly to turn one such situation into the equaliser and he rifled in the winning goal with a level of confidence that did not seem to be present last season.

BEST MOMENT

Madsen’s equaliser. It completely shifted the momentum of the game. Paul Nardi had made an excellent save from Adebayo to stop Rangers falling two goals behind in the 54th minute, and by the 62nd, they were ahead and on their way to a first league win of the season. Both QPR goals being scored in front of the famous away end at Luton will mean this win will surely be savoured for a while at least.

MOAN OF THE MATCH

The pole blocking the view of one of the goals. Kenilworth Road is a great ground with lots of character. It is almost slightly sad that they had to modernise it last season to get up to Premier League requirements. However, not being able to see one of the goals from the press box did make keeping on top of what was happening more challenging than usual, particularly when the hosts were pushing for a late equaliser. However, the view of the two Rangers goals was near-enough perfect.

A TALKING POINT DOWN THE PUB

QPR’s season starts now. There have been tough fixtures to contend with so far and transfer incomings and outgoings that have disrupted the balance of the team. But with the squad now settled, Cifuentes has options to approach games in different ways and also make effective substitutions thanks to the depth provided by his bench. His best player in Ilias Chair is also yet to return.

WHAT THE BOSS HAD TO SAY

“It’s a great feeling. The game had 3 moments: we started well in the first 16 mins until they scored. They are a physical side, very intense. They score because they are very good on set-pieces.

“From when they score to until we score they were very dominant. Paul Nardi makes a fantastic save that keeps us in the game.

“We spoke at half-time that we had to make some adjustments. We needed more energy, we had a lot of fresh legs compared to Tuesday [in the EFL Cup].

“It was about adjusting because against teams that press so high with man to man it is about making a combination to make sure you get 1 v1 and that was the case in the [equalising] goal.”

“We invited the press and then went in behind. Michy was exceptional, we scored the draw and from there was the third moment of the game. We get the second goal but immediately had more control.”