Queens Park Rangers 4-1 Leicester City: Former boss Marti Cifuentes endures nightmare return to QPR
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Queens Park Rangers and Leicester City at Loftus Road on Saturday; Koki Saito, Richard Kone, Karamoko Dembele and Amadou Mbengue net as Foxes boss Marti Cifuentes endures nightmare return to QPR.
Saturday 20 December 2025 18:33, UK
QPR thrashed Leicester 4-1 in a nightmare return to west London for Marti Cifuentes.
Under-fire Foxes boss Cifuentes, back at Loftus Road for the first time since an acrimonious exit from Rangers earlier this year, saw his team concede four goals in a first half his former side totally dominated.
Koki Saito opened the scoring in only the second minute, and goals from Richard Kone, Karamoko Dembele and Amadou Mbengue put the hosts in complete control.
Silko Thomas pulled one back - his first goal for Leicester - by thumping in the loose ball after Bobby De Cordova-Reid's 82nd-minute penalty had hit a post.
Cifuentes has endured a difficult start at Leicester since taking over in the summer and, after an encouraging total of seven points from their previous three matches, this result puts him back under serious pressure.
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His successor at QPR, Julien Stephan, on the other hand, is enjoying an impressive first season in English football - Rangers are in the play-off chase and this was their fourth consecutive home win.
They took an early lead when Dembele crossed from the right, Rumarn Burrell stretched to nudge the ball towards goal, and it bounced off Saito at the far post and into the net.
Saito should then have added a second, again after a cross from the lively Dembele, but contrived to lift the ball over the bar from close range.
It was only a temporary reprieve for the visitors as Kone's first goal since early October made it 2-0 after 29 minutes and Dembele got his first of the season four minutes later.
Nicolas Madsen's free-kick from the right-hand side of the halfway line was headed by Jimmy Dunne across to Kone, who held off Jordan Ayew and fired into the roof of the net.
Worse followed for the Foxes when Burrell collected Rhys Norrington-Davies' low cross from the left and laid the ball off to Dembele, who took a touch before powering a left-footed shot beyond Jakub Stolarczyk and into the bottom corner.
And in first-half stoppage time, what looked like an attempted cross from right-back Mbengue caught out Stolarczyk at the Polish keeper's near post.
Leicester were better in the second half - they could hardly have been worse - and were awarded a spot-kick when Ricardo Pereira's shot was handled by Sam Field.
Thomas reacted quickly after De Cordova-Reid's miss, but the goal was scant consolation for Leicester, who were well beaten.
The managers
QPR's Julien Stephan:
"We have to speak about the players, about their quality, their mentality and the effort on the pitch.
"All the players big deserve credit. But it's a dangerous moment for me - especially for me - because I think you will write a lot of positive things on the players and the next game will be another battle.
"We have to enjoy the moment, but we need to stay focused on the fact that each time it's a new story, each game it's different, and we have to prepare and have the same intensity and quality as this one.
"We are in a good way, but we are only halfway through the season. It's a long journey."
Leicester's Marti Cifuentes:
"A really bad first half and then it was perhaps the end of the game. It was just a very bad first half - unacceptable for me, for the players, and unacceptable for our fans that travelled here.
"We didn't match some of the things that are needed to compete in a game like this, so very disappointed. It's a really disappointing day.
"Emotionally, it's a tough one. We need to move on quick. It's a marathon, we are almost in the middle of the season and we need to pick ourselves up.
"Conceding a goal after just a few minutes was tough for the team. But still, we need to cope with different scenarios and cannot expect things to always go our way.
"In this search for the identity that I'm talking about (having), it's very important to cope with different scenarios. We definitely need to be better. We need to be more consistent, which isn't easy in a league like this."
