Queens Park Rangers vs Cardiff City; Sky Bet Championship
Queens Park Rangers vs Cardiff City. Sky Bet Championship.
Loftus Road Stadium.
Queens Park Rangers 2-1 Cardiff City: Rumarn Burrell double steers QPR to victory
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Queens Park Rangers and Cardiff City at Loftus Road on Wednesday; Rumarn Burrell's double earns victory for Julien Stephan's in-form QPR.
Wednesday 2 September 2026 23:25, UK
Rumarn Burrell scored both QPR goals as they beat Cardiff 2-1 at Loftus Road to continue their impressive start to the Championship season.
Rangers produced a fine attacking display and were deserved winners, but had to endure a somewhat anxious finish after Perry Ng pulled a goal back with a thumping strike.
Julien Stephan's side are second in the table with 10 points from their opening four matches - and the two points dropped came in a goalless draw against Bolton in which they did everything but score.
They went ahead via Nicolas Madsen's right-wing corner after 36 minutes. The ball struck Jimmy Dunne, Cardiff were unable to clear the danger, and Burrell finished from close range.
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The goal came shortly after Cian Ashford had missed a great chance to put Cardiff ahead, meekly heading wide of the target after being found unmarked at the far post from Ollie Tanner's cross.
Rangers had chances before the opener as well - Dunne headed wide from Harvey Vale's corner and Alfie Lloyd blasted over after being set up by Burrell's flick-on.
Burrell, who scored 10 goals last season before suffering a hamstring injury in January, was too hot for the Bluebirds' defence to handle, and scored again eight minutes into the second half.
Ronnie Edwards did superbly, winning the ball in his own half, riding a challenge and then threading a perfect through-ball to release Burrell, who sprinted towards the Cardiff box and showed fine composure to steer his shot beyond goalkeeper Nathan Trott and into the far corner of the net.
QPR continued to dominate and had they taken one of a number of chances to score a third, they would have enjoyed a much more comfortable end to the game.
After Lloyd's shot was saved by Trott, Glen Kamara moved the loose ball on to Koki Saito, who sliced horribly high and wide of the target, before the fit-again - and hugely impressive - Tariq Lamptey fired a shot straight at Trott.
Burrell had a couple of opportunities to complete his hat-trick, dragging an effort wide and seeing another deflected off target.
Stephan then made a quadruple substitution, either replacing or moving three of his back four, and his team lost some momentum.
Fortunate to still be in the game, Cardiff were given a lifeline when Ng unleashed an unstoppable thunderbolt into the top corner from long range on 74 minutes.
Substitute Joel Colwill had a chance to equalise but was unable to get a finishing touch to a cross from former QPR man Chris Willock.
The managers
QPR's Julien Stephan:
"If you compare where we are now after four games and where we were last at the same moment (last season); big difference.
"It's just the beginning of the Championship. If you forget that the Championship is a battle each game, you can drop very quickly.
"The objective is to stay humble - very humble - because if you forget to be humble then this league will kill you immediately.
"So we have to stay humble - but stay ambitious as well."
Cardiff's Brian Barry-Murphy:
"We obviously wanted a win, but it hasn't happened yet. The players retain belief. I think we're improving a lot. There are going to be setbacks along the way and we have to take that on the chin.
"Disappointed with the result, obviously. We weren't at our best in the first half. Technically, we're normally much better than that. We didn't have the intensity we usually have.
"We had chances despite that, but we knew QPR were dangerous on the break - and they were. I think we showed signs of our quality in the second half, but it wasn't enough.
"We knew how dangerous they would be, but we gave the ball away in certain areas, particularly centrally.
"Our players always keep going right until the end. We created chances late in the game, we just couldn't take them.
"Even in the first half, when we weren't at our best, we had good chances, but I can't deny the fact that QPR also had good chances on the break and we obviously have to improve on that in this division."
