Marti Cifuentes left Enzo Maresca “completely surprised” in how he managed to turn around QPR’s form and style of play before beating Leicester City in March last year.
While new City boss Cifuentes tasted defeat the last time he visited the King Power Stadium in the FA Cup in January, his first visit ended in a shock win, the relegation battlers upsetting Maresca’s Championship leaders to leave with a 2-1 victory.
Cifuentes has been in charge of QPR for four months, having taken over from Gareth Ainsworth, who had been sacked following City’s win at Loftus Road in late October.
Maresca was certainly impressed by how the Spaniard had swung the fortunes of the west London side.
Discussing QPR before facing Cifuentes’ side, Maresca said: “They’ve completely changed with the new manager. In the last seven games, they’ve won four, drawn two and lost just one.
“The way they’re playing is completely different. They’re an attacking team now. They try to keep the ball and we need to pay attention in the way we press.
“They are confident for sure. They’ve averaged two points per game, that’s a promotion average.
“I’m completely surprised because they completely changed the way they play and it’s also nice to watch them.”
But perhaps surprising Maresca again, QPR didn’t attack all that much at the King Power Stadium, instead sitting deep to defend the lead they had.
While Cifuentes admitted it was not his preferred style of play, he made adjustments to keep City at bay.
QPR scored with two of their three shots at goal, and while City mustered 18 efforts, they managed barely any clear-cut chances.
Cifuentes said after his side’s victory: “We performed at a really high level against a team that is extremely good.
“Definitely, the game scenario was what we expected but is not our favourite game scenario. We had to defend very low for a long time. We were clinical as we had to be in a game like this.”
Assessing his own side’s display, Maresca said: “It’s not easy to attack a team that sits back. We arrived close but we lacked quality in the last third in terms of the last pass or shot.”
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