Queens Park Rangers vs West Bromwich Albion. Sky Bet Championship.
Loftus Road StadiumAttendance15,900.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Queens Park Rangers and West Bromwich Albion at Loftus Road; Josh Maja hits a hat-trick to cancel out Lucas Andersen' opener and seal victory for the Baggies
Saturday 10 August 2024 16:13, UK
Josh Maja scored a hat-trick as West Brom came from behind to beat QPR 3-1 at Loftus Road.
Lucas Andersen put Rangers ahead in the 16th minute but Albion, beaten in last season's Championship play-offs, responded emphatically and were deserved winners.
It was a hugely disappointing start to the season for Rangers, who lost their way after an early breakthrough.
Youngster Rayan Kolli delivered an excellent right-footed cross from the left flank and Andersen drifted in unchallenged to head past keeper Alex Palmer.
Albion hit back with a similar goal 10 minutes later. Summer signing Torbjorn Heggem, making his debut, crossed from the left and Maja got in front of Rangers centre-back Jake Clarke-Salter to head home from the edge of the six-yard box.
Maja struck twice more in the second half, with both goals coming after fine work by Tom Fellows on the right.
On 51 minutes, Fellows tricked his way past Kenneth Paal and chipped a cross towards Maja, who beat defender Jimmy Dunne to head past keeper Paul Nardi.
Worse followed for beleaguered QPR 14 minutes later when Fellows got past young substitute Alfie Lloyd and his cross ricocheted off Rangers captain Steve Cook towards Maja, who hooked the ball in from close range.
Nardi then prevented a Baggies fourth by denying Karlan Grant at point-blank range as the visitors threatened to run riot.
At the other end, Palmer pushed over a shot from Dunne at his near post and gathered a Cook volley, and Lloyd sent a low strike narrowly wide, but Rangers never looked likely to mount a comeback.
While Albion always looked a threat, Slovenia international striker Zan Celar was unable to make an impact on his QPR debut following his recent move to west London and was substituted in the second half.
angers expect to bring in attacking reinforcements before the transfer window closes - and with Ilias Chair currently out and Chris Willock having left during the summer, their need to strengthen was abundantly clear.
Albion boss Carlos Corberan, on the other hand, will be hugely encouraged by his team's superb start to the campaign.
There appears to be no hangover from last season's play-off defeat and a dream opening day for Maja, who only managed one goal during the whole of last season, is an outcome few could have predicted.
QPR's Marti Cifuentes:
"I'm not satisfied with our performance. Even though we took the lead and had good moments, after we scored we started to drop (back) and basically the equaliser was a consequence of us dropping too much and defending too passive.
"The three goals actually were pretty bad. West Brom shot on goal four times and three were a goal. That shows a big difference.
"It's a good reality check to understand something that I've been speaking a lot about in the last weeks, about understanding that the reality of this league is very challenging.
"We finished in a good way last season, which is fine, but it's not going to help us to win any games during this season.
"So it's a good reality check and hopefully in the long term it will help everyone to understand where we are.
"We need to be very humble and work very hard to achieve what we want to achieve."
West Brom's Carlos Corberan:
"The last year was unfortunately a very complicated year for Maja. He suffered a very unfair situation in the last year but came back this summer with the mentality to recover this year and to make his best.
"He has been working very hard in pre-season and that's why today he was able to impact the game.
"If he hadn't been working in the way that he was working - when the team had holidays, he was working a lot - it would have been impossible today to see a performance like the one we saw."
