QPR boss Marti Cifuentes said Jimmy Dunne deserved his moment of glory after the defender’s sensational stoppage-time goal secured a 2-1 victory over fellow Championship strugglers Birmingham.
Dunne’s stunning left-footed volley from near the edge of the penalty area took Rangers four points clear of the relegation zone.
The unlikely hero, usually a centre-back, lost his place in the team after some shaky performances and has more recently been deployed at right-back.
Cifuentes said: “He deserves everything. I’m very happy for him. He’s a quality, quality human being.
“He will enjoy this moment, but when things weren’t going his way and there were games he was not starting he was always first in training, supporting his team-mates and happy when the team won.
“Perhaps people tend to underrate him. In the Championship he has always played, with different managers, and there is a reason why.
“Sometimes players can think we take them out (of the team) because we don’t trust them. It’s not because of that, it’s just because there is a lot of competition.”
Dunne’s strike consigned Birmingham to defeat in their first match since Gary Rowett’s return to the club as interim boss.
Juninho Bacuna’s 62nd-minute goal had put Blues within sight of a first win in seven games, but Steve Cook equalised three minutes later and Dunne’s late cracker gave Rangers the points.
Cifuentes added: “It was massive and I think it was one of the biggest achievements since I arrived.
“The feeling was that we should have been leading and then instead Birmingham scored a very good goal.
“It was very important to react immediately. To get the equaliser and be able to keep pushing, it was so important, this moment.
“But we need to be very careful. Today is a day to be very happy, but the reality is that there are seven games left and we will need to pick up a lot more points. It’s going to be difficult until the end.”
Rowett took encouragement from Birmingham’s improved display, despite the result.
“It was a cruel way to end what has been a really positive and productive week in terms of the work we’ve done. I thought some of it came out in the game,” he said.
“Some of the (negative) things that have been happening also happened in the game, but you’re not going to change that instantly.”
Blues are now without a win in seven matches and remain above third-from-bottom Huddersfield only on goal difference.
“When you score that goal away from home you then need a period of the game where the opposition feel a bit more desperate,” Rowett added.
“But they scored pretty much straightaway. Then we lost the game in the way that we did.
“I won’t let that undo the positive things that happened in the game. I won’t let it affect the players.
“Results-wise I don’t think it massively changes the position we’re in, but it’s just one more opportunity we had to take something and I think we probably did deserve to take something.
“I knew this would be a challenging job. I didn’t expect to wave a magic wand and change everything in the first game.
“It’s one game down and we’ll take the positives from it and make sure we improve.”
Verona 0-5 Inter: Five-star visitors go top of Serie A
Inter hammered lowly Verona 5-0 away from home on Saturday to move top of the Serie A table, with all five goals coming in the first half.
The hosts could easily have taken the lead through Casper Tengstedt just six minutes in as he struck the post after causing chaos in the box, but Inter sparked to life after that.
Joaquin Correa rattled the crossbar moments later, and then opened the scoring after 17 minutes, finishing off a lovely team move by chipping Lorenzo Montipo.
Having set up the opener, Marcus Thuram added a quick-fire double; twice in three minutes, he took the goalkeeper out of the game with clever play before picking out the back of the net.
Substitute Stefan de Vrij fired their fourth past Montipo before Yann Bisseck managed to pick out the top corner despite initially tripping over the ball in the 41st minute.
The second half was a subdued affair, though Correa almost scored another, but instead smacked the crossbar for a second time.
Inter leapfrogged Napoli, who do not play until Sunday, as they moved into first with 28 points. Verona are 14th on 12 points.
Data Debrief: Full-throttle first half
It was a pretty much perfect first half from Simone Inzaghi's side, and it gave the manager a chance to rest some key players with a Champions League tie ahead of them in midweek.
Inter scored five goals in the first half of an away league game for only the second time in their history in Serie A - after the 5-1 score against Sampdoria in the first 45 minutes of play back in March 1964.
The visitors scored with all five of their shots on target in the first period and outperformed their 2.79 expected goals (xG) by some margin.
Correa has scored in a Serie A game 756 days after his last goal in the top-flight, on 29th October 2022, against Sampdoria, at Meazza. Meanwhile, all three of his away goals have come against Verona at Bentegodi.
Chelsea not focused on Liverpool and Man City, insists Jackson after Leicester win
Chelsea are not getting carried away by talk of a title challenge following their 2-1 win over Leicester City, according to striker Nicolas Jackson.
Jackson netted his seventh Premier League goal of the season and was joined on the scoresheet by Enzo Fernandez on Saturday, as Enzo Maresca got one over on his former club at the King Power Stadium.
The result lifted the Blues to 22 points in third, just one adrift of champions Manchester City in second and six behind leaders Liverpool.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Jackson said: "We know the months of November and December have a lot of games, so we just try to recover for the next one and go again.
"I saw the danger, then the ball came to Enzo, he gave it to me and he finished. I'm just working in every game to try to help the team win."
Asked if Chelsea were now thinking of themselves as title challengers, he added: "No, we don't look at the teams in front of us, we just try to win every game."
Five of Jackson's goals this season have come on the road, the most of any player in the Premier League.
Since the start of May, only Erling Haaland (18) has bettered Jackson's 11 goals in the competition overall.
Leicester got a stoppage-time consolation through Jordan Ayew's penalty, though they earlier felt aggrieved not to be awarded a spot-kick when Stephy Mavididi was seemingly felled by Wesley Fofana in the 85th minute.
Boss Steve Cooper lamented that call, saying: "We've had some terrible luck with this referee. That continued today.
"There's also the game to talk about. Tough first half in terms of Chelsea territory and dominance with the ball. We gave away a poor goal. It should have been 0-0.
"Defensively we were generally okay. We need to be showing courage and belief. If we do that we can create chances and be a threat.
"The big moment is the first penalty not given, it's clear what happened there. The second one was offside [before VAR] and you see how onside he was.
"That was the story of the officials' game. You can speak to them after 30 minutes. I'm not sure if I will or won't."
'It's an honour' - Flick delighted by Messi's Barcelona praise
Hansi Flick says it is an "honour" to hear Lionel Messi praise Barcelona's start to the season.
Flick took over as Barcelona head coach in May, with the club making an impressive start to LaLiga, as they sit top on 33 points after 13 matches.
They have won 11 of their games, losing the other two, while they are sixth in the Champions League table, just three points behind leaders Liverpool.
Messi, who spent 17 years at Barcelona before leaving to join Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, recently described Flick's team as "spectacular", in particular lauding his use of young players in the team.
The German has not shied away from using academy players during his time at Barcelona so far, with Lamine Yamal the standout of the bunch after he carried last season's form into this campaign.
Yamal is the only player across Europe's big five leagues to complete 25+ dribbles (34), create 25+ chances (26), have 25+ shots (39), score 5+ goals (five) and provide 5+ assists (seven).
When asked how he felt about Messi's comments, Flick was delighted.
"It's an honour to hear the best player in history say that he likes this Barca," he told reporters.
"He follows the team closely, he has his heart set on this club, that means a lot to the youngsters and to the team."
Barcelona return to LaLiga action when they travel to Celta Vigo on Saturday, looking to extend their lead at the top of the league.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
