Sport

Cardiff lose in London as QPR go top of the Championsahip table

02 Sep 2026 3 minute read

Queens Park Rangers v Cardiff City. Sky Bet Championship. Rubin Colwill of Cardiff City is challenged by Nicolas Madsen of Queens Park Rangers. Credit: Juan Gasparini, Huw Evans Picture Agency

A late rally was not enough as the Bluebirds suffered their first league defeat of the season.

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.

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.

Queens Park Rangers v Cardiff City. Sky Bet Championship. Brian Barry-Murphy manager of Cardiff City looks on. Credit: Juan Gasparini, Huw Evans Picture Agency

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.

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