Diabolical QPR are thrashed by Norwich

Norwich 4 QPR 0


Diabolical QPR were no match for the Championship leaders.

Three of the goals were scored in an embarrassingly one-sided first half at Carrow Road, where the visitors were two down within 12 minutes.

Terrible Rangers defending enabled Emiliano Buendia, who was later sent off for a wild challenge on Josh Scowen, to score after just six minutes.

Poor goalkeeping by Joe Lumley resulted in Marco Stiepermann doubling Norwich’s lead, and a mistake by Luke Freeman, who was also at fault for the first goal, led to Teemu Pukki scoring eight minutes before the interval.

Pukki capped a resounding Norwich victory by scoring again five minutes from the end, blasting past Lumley after racing on to Christoph Zimmermann’s ball over the top.

The opener came when Freeman switched off and allowed right-back Max Aarons to drift away from him and collect a diagonal ball from Ben Godfrey.

Aarons squared the ball to an unmarked Buendia, who steered a first-time shot beyond Lumley.

Worse followed for Rangers when Lumley failed to keep out Stiepermann’s low shot from near the edge of the penalty area.

Another defensive aberration led to the third goal.

Toni Leistner, deep in his own half, opted to play the ball inside to Freeman, whose woefully under-hit attempted pass to Joel Lynch was gratefully accepted by Buendia.

The Argentine calmly threaded the ball through to Pukki, who finished with ease – as he did when Rangers’ defence was again carved open with ease late in the game.

John Eustace, placed in caretaker charge following the sacking of Steve McClaren, made five changes but was unable to halt a slump which has now seen Rangers lose 12 of their past 15 league games.

QPR rarely threatened but did go close to pulling a goal back early in the second half when Darnell Furlong’s header from Ebere Eze’s cross was well saved by Tim Krul, who almost allowed a late effort from substitute Bright Osayi-Samuel to squirm through his legs.

Norwich were always comfortable, though, even after Buendia was red-carded with 20 minutes remaining.

QPR: Lumley, Rangel, Furlong, Lynch, Bidwell (Leistner 34), Wszolek (Osayi-Samuel 75), Cousins, Cameron (Scowen 59), Freeman, Eze, Wells.
Subs not used: Ingram, Manning, Hemed, Smith.

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