Chapter 598: The Difficult Race Begins
In their final match in January 2012, QPR defeated Wigan Athletic 5-1 at home, showing strong attacking power and continuing to lead the standings with 52 points.
There was also a battle between second and fourth place, with Manchester City beating Tottenham 3-2 to continue their quest for QPR with 51 points, while Manchester United beat strong rivals Arsenal and remained in third place with 48 points.
Tottenham Hotspur has 43 points and has basically withdrawn from the title race. But they still have a chance to stay in the top four.
In February, QPR ushered in a golden schedule.
They have four league games this month, away at Aston Villa, at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers and then away to Blackburn Rovers and at home to Fulham.
This is a gold rush installment, after this period of time, QPR will continue to encounter strong opponents, so if you can't take advantage of this time to widen the difference, QPR's dream of winning the championship will be shattered.
On the evening of February 1, QPR challenged Aston Villa away, and with a brace from Ricardo and goals from Nainggolan and McConn, they won 4-2 and won all three points.
Manchester United also won comfortably, but Manchester City suffered a surprise defeat at Everton, and the gap between them and QPR was widened to four points.
This good news is like a shot in the arm,
On February 4, in the 24th round of the Premier League, QPR sat at home, scored one goal in each half, and beat Wolves 2:0.
On February 11, in the 25th round of the Premier League, QPR led Blackburn Rovers 3:0 in the first half, and scored a goal each by Ronaldo and Rico in the second half, and finally defeated the opponent 5:0.
On February 18, in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup, QPR, which had rotated most of the main players, beat Birmingham 1:0 at home and successfully advanced to the semi-finals.
This series of victories made the fans rejoice.
They see hope of a double, and this is a miracle that has never happened in the team's more than 100-year history, and the older QPR fans are now often in tears and reminiscing about the bittersweet memories at every turn, and the younger generation of QPR fans also feel that they are the lucky generation to see the two champions play at Loftus Road, to see the team reach the top of the Premier League and soar in the FA Cup.
They were indeed born in the best of times.
Seeing that QPR was about to end February with a winning record, their city rivals quit.
On the evening of February 25, in the 26th round of the English Premier League, QPR hosted Fulham.
The Thames-side side were not willing to let their local rivals show off, QPR twice took the lead, they twice stubbornly held them to a draw, and the two teams ended up in a 2-2 draw.
At the end of this round, the QPR points reached 62 points, still maintaining a slight lead.
Manchester City won all three of their last three games in February and chased back the points to 60 points.
Manchester United, with three wins and one draw in four games, not only won against the Reds Liverpool but also drew away to Chelsea, and currently have 58 points and still retain their title hopes.
Tottenham are also in good form with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, with 50 points, but they have lost fourth place.
Because the one they lost was to their direct rival Arsenal, and it was a miserable 2:5 loss.
With this campaign, Arsenal smoothly entered the top four with a one-point advantage.
So, Arsenal really have a secret.
No matter how well they start the game, you'll always find them dying and eventually coming back to fourth.
No matter how bad they started the game, you always find them catching up and going to fourth.
It's not fifth, it's not third, they're on the fourth bar.
In the scorers' charts, Ricardo made 25 appearances, including 24 starts, scoring 34 goals, not far from his own record of 38 goals.
Given his red-hot streak of goals, and with 12 rounds of league games remaining, no one doubts that he can break his record, the question now is just how far he can go with it?
After the draw with Fulham, Simeone didn't criticize the team too much.
In an important game like the derby, the weaker side tends to burst into extreme fighting power.
He is already happy that he has not had any injuries and that he has a point.
In March, QPR has five league games and an FA Cup semi-final to play.
As for the opponents in the league, there are strong and weak, both traditional giants such as Arsenal and Liverpool, and weak teams such as Bolton.
Simeone told him in training, "Because we didn't win all of them in February and we didn't get behind the teams behind us, March was a crucial month for us. Against Everton, Bolton, Sunderland, I asked for a win in them all. Against Liverpool and Arsenal I asked everyone to get at least three points, but if I got four I would be more satisfied, and of course I'm very happy with all six. I hope everyone can cheer up and don't drop the chain at this stage! ”
As a result, in the first home game against Everton, QPR failed to take all three points.
As for the Everton team, it is always strong and not weak, and weak and not strong. They showed that in this match on the evening of March 3rd.
They stubbornly equalised with a goal conceded and came back with a 72nd-minute header from Romelu Lukaku.
However, in the final moments of the game, Ricardo drove the ball alone and was brought down in the box to win a penalty for QPR. Ricardo took the penalty himself, and it was an overnight success, not allowing the team to lose at home.
QPR, who had drawn two in a row, were tied by Manchester City on points and fell to second place due to goal difference.
Fortunately, in the away game against Bolton Wanderers on March 10, the QPR players were re-energized and won 2-1.
Manchester City, on the other hand, lost 1-0 at Swansea City and QPR once again led the table on their own.
On the evening of March 18, QPR, who played as the main team, swept Leicester City with a disparity of 6:2 and successfully entered the FA Cup final.
After the game, the media commented that the rangers were indeed the nemesis of animals (foxes).
With the power of a big victory, on the evening of March 21, QPR welcomed Liverpool at home.
Despite the fatigue of QPR, despite Gerrard opening the scoring for Liverpool in the first half, QPR went crazy in the second half.
Ricardo scored a hat-trick with an overhead kick to equalle his own record of 38 goals scored in a single season, with Ronaldo also netting. Although Skrtel's header in the last minute pulled a point back for Liverpool, it was too late, and QPR beat the opponent 4-2 to take all three points.
Manchester City also defeated Chelsea 2:1 and continued to chase hard.
On the evening of March 24, the tired QPR challenged Sunderland away. In this game, the whole QPR team was out of shape, and they fell behind by 2 goals in the first half.
Although Luka Modric pulled a goal back for QPR with a long-range shot at the start of the second half, he was unable to change the situation, losing 2-1 and losing the top spot to Manchester United.
Sunderland, the black cat, is indeed a good man who robs the rich and helps the poor.
Manchester City also drew away to Stoke City and continued to maintain a two-point gap to QPR.