Queens Park Rangers finished their preseason friendly in encouraging/mediocre fashion with a win/loss against Premier League Brentford.
The away side almost made a perfect start to the game as Rico Henry whipped a dangerous ball across the QPR six-yard box, but there was no onrushing Brentford player available to tap the ball in.
However, Keith Andrews’ side did not have to wait much longer to take the lead. QPR failed to properly clear their lines after a long throw, and Michael Kayode’s cross was met by the head of Nathan Collins, who beat Joe Walsh in goal with a deft touch just two minutes after the start of play.
The visitors almost doubled their lead 11 minutes in. A couple of incisive passes from Rico Henry and Mikkel Damsgaard led to Thiago Rodrigues being able to shoot from a narrow angle, though his attempt was blocked by a QPR defender.
QPR’s first shot of the game came in the 12th minute. Space opened up for Kieran Morgan outside of the Brentford box, but the 19-year-old put his effort well over the bar.
Fabio Carvalho forced Walsh into action on the 18-minute mark after the latter’s pass was intercepted due to a slip from Steve Cook. The 23-year-old dealt with the strike comfortably.
After a lull in the play, it was the R’s who had the next shot in the 35th minute. However, Ziyad Larkeche’s effort, again from outside of the box, failed to test Caoimhin Kelleher in the Brentford goal. That was the last real action of the half, as the Bees went into the break one goal to the good.
Half time: Queens Park Rangers 0-1 Brentford
The home side got the game back underway as neither team made any changes at the break.
There was bad news for R’s fans five minutes into the half as Steve Cook limped off due to an injury.
The away side had a good opportunity to double their lead in the 54th minute after Keane Lewis-Potter made an excellent run down the left wing. Carvalho chose to try to pass Lewis-Potter’s cut back rather than take a shot.
Five minutes later, Walsh made an excellent save with his feet to keep the score level. Yehor Yarmolyuk played an excellent threaded through-ball to Henry, but the Englishman could not quite beat Walsh with his powerful driven strike.
The R’s almost had a good chance from a free-kick in the 74th minute. Jonathan Varane ghosted away from his marker at the front post, but the ball was slightly too high for him to make contact.
Frank Onyeka won the ball on the edge of the QPR box and played a pass to Antoni Milambo in the 76th minute. The Dutchman unleashed a strike which deflected off an R’s defender before being saved by Walsh.
The Bees almost scored their second goal of the game after Carvalho met a quickly taken free-kick with his head. His effort was saved by Walsh.
Daniel Bennie had the chance to recreate his stupendous chip from the game against SC Heerenveen last week. But the young Australian failed to make sufficient contact with the ball.
In the final action of the game, Mads Roerslev put a low ball in from the right wing which found Myles Peart-Harris in a lot of space in the R’s box. The young attacker failed to keep his effort down.
Full time: Queens Park Rangers 0-1 Brentford
