EFL: Improved Birmingham shock QPR

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 Birmingham City 2 - 0 QPR

A resurgent Birmingham City claimed their biggest scalp of the season

John Eustace's side battled their way to victory over high-flying Queens Park Rangers.

Birmingham fans and players clearly enjoyed their night.  

QPR were done no favours by two of their London neighbours as Blues won with first-half goals from two loan men - Arsenal's American defender Auston Trusty and West Ham wing-back Manny Longelo.

Any hopes that Michael Beale's side might turn it round after the break were then ended with Blues goalkeeper John Ruddy's fine 79th-minute penalty save to deny Lyndon Dykes.

After winning four times in five away games, this was a second straight defeat on the road for QPR, while Blues' third win in five - in front of 19,007, their biggest home crowd since before the Covid pandemic, lifts them into the top half.

It looked on the cards right from the moment when, in an already bouncing atmosphere at the reduced-capacity ground, still affected by the loss of 10,000 seats because of a delayed stadium refurbishment, Blues stole ahead in only the fourth minute with a freakish but inspired opening goal.

More news from the English Football League>>>

Krystian Bielik redirected the ball back into the box after a corner broke to him on the edge of the penalty area. But, with his back to goal, Trusty showed great awareness to acrobatically deliver the ball into the six-yard box with a flick of his outstretched right leg, and it looped just out of Rangers keeper Seny Dieng's reach and under the bar.

How good was this goal? 

Blues were then 2-0 up just before the half-hour mark when, from a sweeping move of first-time passes from Scott Hogan, Hannibal Mejbri and Bielik the ball was delivered out to Longelo wide on the left and the West Ham loan man cut inside, transferred the ball to his right foot and drilled a low shot beyond Dieng to find the bottom right corner. This was how the match ended.

Reaction

Listen to the reaction of the Birmingham Head Coach John Eustace.


One Birmingham fan added: "I was so wrong about Eustace. I know many of us were cynical. However, I had very little hope, if any. Being proven wrong is always a valuable lesson. If we had a prolific goal scorer, we'd easily be top 3. 6 years since I've been this proud of the blues and much of it is owed to this man."

Update from the network

European Super Football (eurosuperfootball.blogspot.com) 

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