Preview: Albion head to West London to face QPR

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Championship side provide the opposition in our penultimate pre-season friendly.

2024-08-03T06:00+01:00

Spaniard Marti Cifuentes guided QPR to Championship safety last season when they finished with three successive wins.

Albion face Championship side Queens Park Rangers in their penultimate pre-season test on Saturday, kick off 3pm at the MATRADE Loftus Road Stadium.

It will be our first visit to QPR since 2017 when Albion won 2-1 on their way to securing promotion to the Premier League.

The boss

Marti Cifuentes was appointed QPR head coach in October 2023 when the 41-year-old Spaniard joined from Swedish top-flight side Hammarby, where he had been since January 2022.

Following brief spells as a youth coach with Millwall, Ajax and Spanish sides Terrassa FC and UE Rubi, his senior management began in the third tier of Spanish football with UE Sant Andrew in 2014 and CE L’Hospitalet ahead of the 2015/16 season.

He worked with AIK before being named head coach of Norwegian side Sandefjord and led them to promotion to the top flight in 2019. After taking Aalborg BK to fourth in the Danish League he went to Hammarby, helping the club to third in the Swedish League in 2022 while also reaching the final of the Svenska Cup and qualifying for the Europa Conference League last season.

Last season

QPR were in the Championship’s bottom two and had lost six league games in a row when Cifuentes arrived at Loftus Road, but he quickly helped improve their fortunes with three wins and two draws in his first six games.

QPR defender Liam Morrison joined the club in the summer from Bayern Munich.

Rangers lost five out of six over Christmas and New Year to drop back into the relegation zone, but a 2-0 home win over Millwall in January sparked their best run of the season. They only lost twice in the next 13 games to climb away from danger and climbed to a final position of 18th after winning their last three, including a 4-0 home victory over Leeds in their final home match.

llias Chair and Lyndon Dykes were joint top scorers with seven goals each.

Summer signings

Rangers have searched far and wide to add nine players to their squad from clubs in Scotland, Australia, Portugal, Switzerland and Germany as well as domestically.

Striker Zen Celar is one of nine new summer signings at QPR.

Seven players have come on free transfers while undisclosed fees were paid for Scottish U21 central defender Liam Morrison, who spent last season on loan with Wigan from Bayern Munich. Slovenia international Zan Celar joined from Swiss club Lugano, where he scored 40 goals in 95 games. Celar previously played for AS Roma and has won 13 caps for his country.

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