Nahki Wells and Matt
Smith netted inside the final twenty minutes to help Queens Park Rangers
overcome Portsmouth in their Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round Replay at Loftus
Road, setting up a home Last 16 tie against Watford.
The sides had drawn 1-1 at Fratton Park ten days ago in the original
tie, and a tight and cagey affair was expected as the R’s sit 14th
in the Championship whilst Pompey, backed by over 3,000 in a lively away end,
sat 3rd in League One.
Both teams had been going through difficult patches in the league,
so this was a welcome distraction and a chance to make the Last 16 of the world’s
most famous competition.
Any first half chances though did fall to the hosts, and saw
an early Smith headed fly wide before both Massimo Luongo and Luke Freeman
fired efforts off target for the R’s, and then Darnell Furlong himself went
close but could not find the back of the net.
The closest anyone came to scoring in the opening forty-five
minutes though came when QPR's Furlong guided a header onto the crossbar, and with
Pompey creating very little in attack the game remained goalless at the break.
Half Time Queens Park
Rangers 0 Portsmouth 0
Rangers saw Wells and Freeman fire wide after the break,
whilst Pompey’s best chance of the game thus far saw Gareth Evans fired wide
for the visitors, but you felt the hosts were more likely to break the deadlock
if indeed anyone would.
As the minutes ticked by though it seemed the game was
heading towards extra-time and maybe even penalties, but QPR finally broke through
a resilient Pompey back-line from a set-play, as a cross saw Joel Lynch helped
on Smith’s header and saw Wells, who is on-loan from Burnley, turn and squeeze
the ball home from close range to put the Championship side ahead with twenty
minutes left.
This got the hosts tails up and they quickly went in search
of a second, and six minutes later they found what was the clinching second
when Smith rose to power home a header from a Freeman set-play and give the visitors
a mountain to climb.
It was a mountain they could not climb too and despite some late pressure in stoppage time, they really didn’t threaten the hosts goal much
at all over the ninety minutes, and the R’s completed a deserved victory,
setting up a mouth-watering Fifth Round tie at home to Premier League Watford in
front of the BT Sport camera’s a week on Friday evening.
Full Time Queens Park
Rangers 2 Portsmouth 0
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