Julien Stephan was glowing in his verdict of Middlesbrough after their 4-0 win over his QPR side
Julien Stephan manager of Queens Park Rangers(Image: Simon Dael/Shutterstock)
QPR boss Julien Stephan’s pre-match Middlesbrough suspicions were confirmed, as he labelled Kim Hellberg’s side the best team in the Championship and backed them to go and win promotion.
Boro put on a commanding and assured display at Loftus Road as they ran out 4-0 winners thanks to goals from David Strelec, Alan Browne, Hayden Hackney and Tommy Conway. It was another step towards their promotion aim.
Ahead of the game, Stephan had claimed Boro were the best in the division, and said his side would have to be near perfect to get a result. After their thrashing, Stephan held his hands up, as Boro confirmed his beliefs.
He said: “I can confirm this is the best team in the league. I thought that before, now I can confirm it. They are very strong technically, able to keep the ball for a long time and find the spaces, strong counter press, they are a top, top team.
“I hope they finish in the top two positions because I think they deserve it with their qualities. Sometimes you have to just congratulate the opponent and say we faced a better team than us and accept the situation. It shows us how we have to improve if we want to be close to this level in the future.”
After what was a dominant Boro performance in the capital, the Rs boss added: “When you lose against a top, top team you have to accept they are better than us. This is the reality.
“They deserve the win. More quality individually and collectively, more quality with and without the ball. Except the beginning of the second half when we created short momentum, they were dominant.
“We conceded the second goal and the third arrived very quickly. It killed the game. You have to say we lost to a better team than us and they deserved the win.”
The victory for Boro means that, with ten games remaining, they’re four points better off than Millwall, and five points ahead of Ipswich Town, who do have a game in hand.
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