Across 90 raucous minutes in west London Leeds lost control of this crucial game and with it their future.
They hoped this would be another step in a sprint to promotion but instead they stumbled, and QPR’s fully deserved victory not only secured their own place in the Championship it also promoted Leicester, who will travel to Preston on Monday in the knowledge that their return to the Premier League at the first attempt is certain.
Should Ipswich win their two games in hand by the time Leeds next play, at home to Southampton next Saturday, Daniel Farke’s side will already be preparing for the playoffs.
With the visitors weakened by injuries and bizarrely becalmed for much of the match – to take nothing away from QPR’s skilful and spirited performance – goals in the opening 22 minutes from Ilias Chair and Lucas Andersen put the Hoops in control.
Second-half headers from Lyndon Dykes and Sam Field, both from Chair set pieces, sealed their most emphatic victory of the season, and for Leeds their heaviest defeat.
“Today we were definitely not good enough to have the chance to win,” said Farke. “Today we lacked the basics: to run, to fight, to be brave, to be compact as a team. We were lacking this in the first 20 minutes and when we woke up it was already almost too late.
“But the race is not over. Nothing is over. We are in the chasing role since gameday one and one thing’s for sure, we never give up. As long as we have a chance, I’m far away from giving up.”
This was always a deceptively difficult test, with QPR a team transformed since Martí Cifuentes took over in October. If Leeds’ attempt to escape the second flight had been turbocharged by a run of exceptional results since the turn of the year, QPR conjured a similar surge to avoid an entirely unwanted departure from the division. A notional 2024 Championship table might have Leeds at the top, but these three points would put the Hoops in the top six.
“First of all, target achieved,” Cifuentes said. “That was the main thing. It was a really special night. I saw the bravery, in the way we wanted to attack, even in the last minutes of the game trying to press high. And then of course the togetherness. The connection with the supporters was amazing.”
They were excellent from the off, and alarm bells should have been clanging for Leeds as early as the sixth minute, when Chris Willock won the ball well inside his own half and surged stylishly if much too frictionlessly past a succession of half-hearted challenges until, just outside the Leeds penalty area, he overhit his pass to Dykes.
Two minutes later the home side took the lead. Chair carried the ball into Leeds’ half, allowed their defence to be distracted by Kenneth Paal’s overlapping run, cut inside and sent in a shot from 20 yards that clipped Joe Rodon’s shoulder and deflected beyond Illan Meslier.
Chair could soon have scored another, but he slashed over the bar from 15 yards after Andersen’s free-kick was half cleared. Then in the 22nd minute, after a throw-in on the right, Andersen befuddled Ilia Gruev with a drop of the shoulder, cut infield and curled an unstoppable shot into the far corner.
Leeds recovered a little from there, and perhaps the game turned in the 32nd minute when Wilfried Gnonto’s cross dropped to an unmarked Crysencio Summerville at the far post. With time and space to pick his spot the Dutchman, by general acclaim the Championship’s outstanding player this season, chose Asmir Begovic’s chest.
Beyond that the only thing Begovic had to do in the first half, beyond catching a few crosses, was a fine if fairly routine low stop from Joël Piroe’s left-footed shot.
Though Leeds started the second period with a bit more vigour they struggled to translate it into a genuine goal threat, and when a chance finally came, a low cross from the left finding Georginio Rutter in space eight yards out, the Frenchman swung his left foot as if it belonged to a complete stranger and sent the ball bobbling wide. In the 66th minute the substitute Mateo Joseph turned Junior Firpo’s cross goalwards, Begovic deflected it behind with an outstretched foot, and that was the last time Leeds seriously threatened.
Seven minutes later Chair’s left-wing corner was met by Dykes, whose header bounced between Meslier’s legs on its way into the net. With four minutes to play and Leeds long resigned to their fate Chair sent in a free-kick from the right and Meslier could only palm Field’s header into the top corner.
