Bristol City vs Queens Park Rangers. Sky Bet Championship.
Ashton GateAttendance21,665.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Bristol City and QPR at Ashton Gate as Stefan Johansen and Tyler Roberts fired Michael Beal's side to victory on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday 1 October 2022 18:51, UK
First-half goals from Stefan Johansen and Tyler Roberts proved enough for QPR to record a 2-1 Sky Bet Championship victory over Bristol City at Ashton Gate.
Johansen fired the visitors in front on 19 minutes, latching onto the rebound after Dan Bentley had tipped a Chris Willock shot onto a post.
Three minutes later, Kenneth Paal broke away down the left and supplied the cross for Roberts to double the advantage with a far post volley.
Former Rangers striker Nahki Wells pulled a goal back for City on 61 minutes, slotting home from close range after Rangers made a hash of clearing Andreas Weimann's low cross from the right.
The home side threw extra men forward in search of an equaliser, but Rangers defended strongly to take three deserved points.
City started well, with Alex Scott shooting narrowly wide from the edge of the box in the eighth minute.
Goalkeeper Seny Dieng kept Rangers on terms by palming Zak Vyner's 14th minute header from a Kal Naismith free-kick onto a post.
But soon it was the Rangers front three of Roberts, Willock and Ilias Chair causing major problems for a fragile City back-three.
Chair beat a poorly executed offside trap to get in behind Kal Naismith and fire a powerful shot, which Bentley beat away.
The warning went unheeded as Willock broke through three minutes later to set up Johansen's goal. And it was no surprise when shortly after that Roberts made it 2-0.
Rangers were looking penetrating with every attack. Chair shot over from inside the box in the 32nd minute and fired inches wide seconds later.
City had a great chance to pull a goal back in the 43rd minute but Tommy Conway elected to shoot with Wells unmarked to his right and the effort was blocked.
Home boss Nigel Pearson responded to a poor first-half performance by sending Antoine Semenyo for Conway at the start of the second period.
City again started brightly only for individual errors to put them under pressure.
Joe Williams was booked for a foul after being caught in possession and a similar mistake by Vyner led to Bentley tipping a Chair shot onto the crossbar.
Wells' goal lifted City fans, who had booed their team off at the interval, but Rangers defended in numbers and always looked dangerous on the break.
Both managers made liberal use of their substitutes before Wells had a shot deflected over with 13 minutes remaining, then headed the resulting corner wide.
Home fans were incensed when Wells then caught Dieng in possession but the goalkeeper somehow recovered to grab the ball just inside his penalty area.
Rangers had chances to make the game safe in the closing stages, substitute Andre Dozzell shooting wide from the best of them.
Bristol City's Nigel Pearson: "We made too many unforced errors, not just at the back, but all over the pitch. It was always likely to be a tight game and we gifted them two goals. I am not going to offer excuses because too many of our players were below par. We caused ourselves problems. You can't give teams that sort of start in Championship games and expect to come back and win.
"We have had three narrow defeats on the spin but today feels very different because we contributed so much to our own downfall. There was a bit of nervousness. At least we got back into the game in the second half, but they had opportunities too and I can have no complaints over the result."
QPR's Michael Beale: "That moment seemed to wake us up and from then on we played some really good football. It was a very big save because Bristol City started the game on fire, with great intensity, and their crowd were really up for it. The first goal was always going to be important and if Seny had not kept that header out, it might have been an entirely different story. We respected Bristol as an attacking force and it was important that our front three did better than theirs. That's what happened.
"No one could have complained if we had been more than two goals up at the interval, although they had one or two chances too. If we had been a bit more ruthless, we could have been out of sight. But 2-0 is a dangerous score and, like a lot of teams, we became nervous. mOverall, to come to a place where our opponents' home form has been really good - and win - is very satisfying."
