Last time: From a few months ago: Manchester City 3 QPR 1
MANCHESTER CITY vs QPR
- Pre-Match Video of QPR and Manchester City Players and Officials Before come out of the Tunnel
- 70+ Photos from Manchester City vs QPR
POST-MATCH TWEETS
Tony Fernandes @tonyfernandes
Super game. We could have sneaked a draw. But was real happy. Its coming together. They are the champions.
Amit Bhatia â€@amit_Bhatia99
great feedback from all the fans- i agree we can take a bunch of +ves from the second half and @swp29 and @egranero11 looked very good.
Amit Bhatia â€@amit_Bhatia99
important two weeks ahead for the team to get to know each other better and work well as a unit. i have faith that we will improve.
IanJTaylor â€@ijtaylor81
Second half display very encouraging. Like the look of @egranero11 - top player. Chelsea then Spurs. Bring it on! #QPR
IanJTaylor â€@ijtaylor81
Reckon @tonyfernandes @amit_Bhatia99 and co. will be happy tonight. So many positives. Roll on Chelsea. #QPR
4m IanJTaylor â€@ijtaylor81
Never ever been more excited by what's to come from the R's. Now its time to get on it with the #QPR fans and chat rubbish. #QPR
4m Adam Hulme â€@adamhulme86
Despite the result, there's plenty of positives to take. Not much in it second half. Strongest side in the league after all. Down feel down
6m Ruben Gnanalingam Ruben Gnanalingam â€@ruben_E_G
At least we gave it our all. Was never going to be easy. Good 2 week break coming up. Some much needed time to gel. COYRs!
Philip Beard â€@philipb1
We ran them really close and spirit was good right to the end. Great to see Ali and Kieron back. Much to be optimistic about. #QPR
QPR Official Site - Mark Hughes - Our Best Yet
Gaffer encouraged by City display
We were in the back yard of the champions and we pressed and imposed ourselves on a very, very good team"
Mark Hughes
MARK HUGHES described his side’s performance at Manchester City as ‘progress’ after seeing Rangers go down to a 3-1 defeat – that despite a valiant second-half showing.
Bobby Zamora put the R’s on terms after the half-time break to cancel out Yaya Toure’s first-half opener.
City won in thanks to further goals from Edin Dzeko and Carlos Tevez.
“I was encouraged by what I saw today – it’s progress from what we’ve produced so far this season,” Hughes told
www.qpr.co.uk.
“We were in the back yard of the champions and we pressed and imposed ourselves on a very, very good team. I’m pleased with that and it’s something that we can build on.
“Our shape was good in the first half and we were working hard, perhaps without affecting the game going the other way.
“But we addressed that in the second half. We really put a shift in and caused them problems.
“I thought we were in control of the game when we equalised. But it was body blow to concede so soon after. If we’d have maintained the position we were in, we could have caused them even more problems.
“I sensed there was a little bit of apprehension in the stadium and that was filtering through to them and we fed off that.
“In the end, I was disappointed that we conceded a third goal, but there are a lot of positives to take out of it.”
Hughes – who also confirmed a shoulder injury that forced Anton Ferdinand off in the second half didn’t appear to be serious – continued: “Ale Faurlin got another 70 minutes on the road to his total recovery.
“I thought Esteban Granero was excellent all day. I brought him off as a precaution as he hasn’t had a great deal of game-time recently. But he showed what a great player he’s going to be for us.
“We defended exceptionally well today. It’s a shame that he’s (Ryan Nelsen) 35, not 25. He played really well.
“There’s a lot positives – but it’s obviously disappointing that we didn’t pick up any points today.” QPR
FULHAM CHRONICLE -QPR boss explains Taarabt absence
MARK Hughes has revealed Adel Taarabt was left out of the squad for QPR's defeat to Manchester City for tactical reasons.
With midfielders Ali Faurlin and Esteban Grenero short of fitness and unable to last 90 minutes, Hughes felt he needed to provide sufficient cover on the bench.
That meant there was no room for Taarabt or centre-back Clint Hill among the seven substitutes.
We've got a lot of guys in the squad and everybody's fit at the moment so it's difficult to fit everybody on the bench,� said the Rangers boss.
We had legislate for the fact that we had two guys in the middle of the park that might have to be changed, so I had to cover myself in that regard.
Unfortunately they didn't make the bench but that's healthy because it shows we've got more strength in depth in the squad than we did last year. Fulham Chronicle
SPORTING LIFE - Mancini and Hughes Comments
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini bemoaned his side's finishing ability after making hard work of victory over QPR.
The Barclays Premier League champions created a multitude of chances, particularly in the first half, but in the end scraped to a 3-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium.
QPR withstood considerable pressure to cancel out Yaya Toure's opener through Bobby Zamora and it needed a quick response from Edin Dzeko to restore City's lead.
Ryan Nelsen went close to another equaliser late on but Carlos Tevez gave the scoreline a more convincing look with his fourth goal of the campaign in injury time.
Mancini, for whom the match was his 100th in charge in the Premier League, told ESPN: "I think we played well in first half, but we have one problem at the moment - when we have a chance to score we don't score and the game can change.
"We had this problem in the first game and against Liverpool.
"In the second half we didn't play well. We were too slow but in the end it's important that we took three points."
City goalkeeper Joe Hart kept 17 clean sheets last season but Zamora's close-range header means he has still not recorded one this term.
But with seven points from three games, captain Vincent Kompany does not think alarm bells should be ringing yet.
The Belgium international said: "No it doesn't matter. We've always proved to be solid come difficult times.
"Come December, January and February we'll show it. At this time everyone tries to play the game nicely.
"We left ourselves exposed but at the end of the season we won't do that."
The defeat left QPR still looking for their first win of the season while their former City boss Mark Hughes is still to triumph away from home since taking charge.
But Rangers are much changed from the side which narrowly avoided relegation having signed 12 new players over the summer.
Hughes felt his side were unfortunate not to take something from the game.
He said: "I think we are a little bit disappointed.
"In the first half we restricted them to a few chances and the most problems we had were from set pieces. In general play I thought our shape was good.
"But we were working hard without putting them under enough pressure to affect the game going the other way.
"I thought we addressed that in the second half and really put a shift in and caused them some problems. I thought we were in control of the game.
"Obviously when we equalised it was a real body blow to concede so soon after that. If we had maintained the position at 1-1 maybe we could have caused them even more problems.
"I sensed there was apprehension in the stadium and that was filtering through to them.
"We fed off that but in the end we were disappointed. In general we can take positives from it."
Hughes handed a debut to Esteban Granero, who joined the club from Real Madrid this week, while Alejandro Faurlin, recently returned from a six-month lay-off, started.
Hughes said: "Faurlin had another 70 minutes on the road to his recovery and I thought Granero was excellent all day.
"I took him off as a precaution. He hasn't had a great deal of football but showed what a good player he is going to be for us."
Hughes added that striker DJ Campbell was not part of his immediate plans.
"We will try to get him a loan deal," he said. Sporting Life
GUARDIAN
Paul Wilson at the Etihad Stadium
Manchester City did not need Fergie time to win this one, though they were far from convincing against a Queens Park Rangers side still getting to know each other. Lacking their sharpest two strikers they struggled to turn a wealth of possession into a commanding lead until Carlos Tevez struck in stoppage time to give the scoreline a flattering gloss.
The defending champions have yet to keep a clean sheet this season and, though they answered back smartly enough when QPR roused themselves to make a game of it in the second half, there were more defensive aberrations than Roberto Mancini has been used to. "It is important that we improve because we cannot concede a goal in every match," the City manager said. "We played well in the first half but our big problem is that we are not taking our chances."
City survived an early scare when Joe Hart had to backpedal to prevent Jack Rodwell claiming the own goal of the season, but that apart the much-altered QPR were unrecognisable in the first half as the enterprising side who gave the Etihad such palpitations in May. City were ahead after 16 minutes and it was an indication of how one-sided the action was that they scored from their sixth corner. David Silva sent over a deep cross from the right, and though Tevez's far-post volley did not quite come off the rebound off Bobby Zamora was tucked away by Yaya Touré.
City enjoyed a near monopoly of possession for the rest of the first half but failed to do an awful lot with it. Without Sergio Agüero and Mario Balotelli, the latter on the bench before an operation to correct his eyesight in Italy next week, City lacked a certain sparkle up front, where Edin Dzeko's first touch let him down on a couple of occasions. José Mourinho was present to check out City in advance of their Champions League meeting with Real Madrid later this month and, while there is a possibility Mancini will still be without his two first-choice forwards when the first game comes around at the Bernabéu, the club are confident Balotelli's laser surgery is a minor enough procedure for him to return straight after the international break.
City opened the second half on the offensive, with Robert Green stopping a shot from Tevez and Pablo Zabaleta hitting the bar after being sent in on goal through one of the passes of the afternoon from Silva. Zamora managed his first attempt on goal just before the hour but could not keep his header down, so when he came up with an equaliser just seconds later it counted as something of a surprise. Perhaps the greatest surprise was that Silva was to blame for losing the ball in his own half, allowing Andy Johnson to advance to the edge of the penalty area, and, though Hart produced a marvellous save to keep out a stinging shot that took a slight deflection, he ended up on the floor and was powerless to prevent Zamora nodding the loose ball over the line.
If that seemed to suggest another tense finish may be on the cards for City after all, on this occasion Rangers held their lead for only two minutes. Tevez did well to seize on Aleksandar Kolarov's cross from the left and turn it into something more threatening with a single touch, and when he put the ball back across the face of goal Dzeko was in an ideal position to score with a straightforward header.
Dzeko was in an ideal position to put the match beyond reach a few minutes later, presented with the ball at his feet by another impeccable pass from Silva, yet with only Green to beat he contrived to miss the target. Dzeko's next big chance came right at the death, and again he mis–hit, though at least he hit his shot right at Tevez, who stuck out a slightly lucky leg to divert it past Green.
"I don't think we deserved that third goal but I was pleased with the shift we put in in the second half," Mark Hughes said. "We imposed ourselves on a very good team, and we can only get better once the new guys bed in." GUARDIAN
TELEGRAPH/Jason Burt
With Jose Mourinho in the stands, Manchester City will have wanted a special performance in front of the Special One.
But they wanted a winning one more and they got that, just about, although despite City’s early dominance Mourinho will have noted the vulnerability that continues to dog Roberto Mancini’s side.
The Real Madrid coach was here to scout ahead of City’s Champions League tie against his club and although there’s no love lost between him and Mancini, there’s no love lost between the Italian and Queens Park Rangers manager Mark Hughes either.
There will always be bite to a meeting between the pair although this encounter didn’t quite have the resonance, the drama, the stakes of that fixture just three months ago on the final day of the season even if there was another goal deep into injury-time with City, once more, scoring three times. But then nothing ever will.
Given the £40m spent by City on deadline day, with five new signings, discussions over stretched resources at the Etihad may appear odd and, while QPR’s overall transfer spending has been relatively modest – a huge bump in wages apart – it’s been an astonishing turnover of players. Again. It was a big ask for them to click immediately.
Seven of those new signings were included by manager Mark Hughes – goalkeeper Julio Cesar and defender Stephane Mbia would have been also had they secured international clearance in time – with the most exciting of all, Esteban Granero, sold by Mourinho of course, thrown straight in. In the opening quarter he barely touched the ball. But then QPR barely touched the ball.
It wasn’t until the 13th minute that QPR ventured into the City half, and that was after a bizarre Jack Rodwell back-pass had landed on the roof of Joe Hart’s net. The corner was easily cleared while QPR had more difficulty dealing with City’s own flag kicks.
Edin Dzeko, dominant again in the air, flashed a header wide, then had another header hacked off the goal-line by Fabio da Silva before yet another David Silva corner led to a scissor-kick from Carlos Tévez, which was blocked by Bobby Zamora, only for Yaya Touré to half-volley home the rebound.
City were rampant, QPR could not gain a foothold. A shot came in from Granero, but it was easily fielded by Hart, while time and again QPR were forced into panicky clearances before Silva poked a first-time effort which was sharply pushed away by the under-pressure Rob Green whose every touch was goaded. City poured forward again. This time Silva was picked out, clear, down the right only for Fabio to scamper across and block his driven shot before it could reach Green.
Having tinkered with personnel and formation, there was a more familiar feel to the champions from Mancini, perhaps himself a more contented figure after signing the likes of Javi Garcia, and they were all the better for him being in that frame even if they were aided by QPR’s inability to gain possession.
But Hughes’s sides are always industrious, always work hard to keep their shape and they finally began to shore things up in the knowledge that City’s dominance wasn’t reflected in the slender scoreline.
Still the opportunities came for City with Green alert once more to beat out an angled drive by Tévez before, following another sweeping attack, initiated by Touré and carried on by Silva, Pablo Zabaleta curled a left-foot shot around Green only for the ball to cannon back off the crossbar.
QPR drew encouragement from that – and then they drew level with Andy Johnson making a vital contribution as he easily dispossessed Silva, outmuscling the midfielder, and working his way into the area. His shot was too powerful for Hart, who appeared startled as he parried it only for Zamora to head the rebound into the net.
It provoked an immediate response, with Kolarov picking out Tévez who scampered to the byline, hooking the ball across goal for Dzeko to easily head beyond Green. Mancini’s relief – and the chants of “that’s why we’re champions” – was matched by Hughes’s fury given how hard his side had worked to gain parity ... only to so quickly surrender it.
Nevertheless QPR sensed vulnerability – and wasted two clear chances. Unfortunately both fell to defender Ryan Nelsen.
For the first he attempted to volley Nedum Onuoha’s header, from a corner, beyond Hart but screwed his shot across goal and then somehow, failed to turn in Granero’s free-kick as he was left unmarked at the far post.
In injury-time, Tévez ended any doubt as he stuck out a boot to meet Dzeko’s woefully mis-hit shot to divert it into the net to settle nerves – but not totally dismiss the notion that City are yet to fire and will need to improve before meeting Mourinho.
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/9512706/Manchester-City-3-Queens-Park-Rangers-1-match-report.html
