MARTI Cifuentes admitted the season had been an “emotional rollercoaster” after Queens Park Rangers took a big step towards Championship safety with their 3-1 win at Oxford United.
Goals from Ronnie Edwards, Ole Romeny and Yang Min-Hyeok helped the R’s move seven points clear of the bottom three with five games left this season.
“You knew how important this game was,” Cifuentes said.
“I’m very happy for the fans, for the players, but as well the celebration of the third goal – all together.
“What those guys, this group, have been through this season, it’s a rollercoaster in terms of emotional demands.
“To come here and to have this kind of performance, especially in the first half after how difficult the last three, four, five games have been – brilliant.
“We felt that Oxford are a team that sometimes can play quite direct, and they have been very strong on set-pieces. We spoke with Sam [Field], with Jack [Colback] and Jonathan [Varane], we know that they’re very good at winning duels.
“We had to adjust after ten minutes because perhaps some positions were a bit too high, but we knew that [Daniel] Bennie has his running capacity, he’s quite physical as well in the duels.
“Perhaps it was about trying to find a good balance between attracting them under pressure, with good players on the build-up like Liam [Morrison], Ronnie and Jack, and then as well be able to pick those seconds to accelerate the game.
“I think it worked well, credit to the players and as well Nico [Madsen], coming from this fake left-wing position, coming inside, I think that he also gave a very good performance.”
Oxford made it 2-1 through Stanley Mills in the 62nd minute.
Cifuentes added: ”It was very nervy and that’s the way it is at this moment of the season.
“I think that we were really good in the first half. We almost didn’t concede a chance in the first half. We controlled the set-pieces quite well, especially the throw-ins.
“In the second half it was very important to start strong because we knew that they would try to push. We got the three-nil chance with Nico driving and Ken [Paal].
“Unfortunately, Sam felt a bit dizzy and when we were down to ten, they scored. It was a pity because we wanted to do the substitution, obviously, before this could happen. And then the momentum shifted, that’s why it was so important to score the third goal.”
