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Pompey Fall Apart On Opening Day

· Samuel Lammas · 2026-08-16T14:36:36+00:00 · nguồn gốc

Team News John Mousinho made just one change to the side that lost in the first round of the Carabao Cup. Luke Le Roux dropped out of the starting 11 in place of new signing Abu Kamara. New additions Benjamin Arthur and Ryan Kavuma-McQueenn made the bench, which included the return of Josh Murphy. Julien Stephan made three changes to his team Paul Smyth, Richard Kone and Nicolas Madsen all dropped out in place of Kwame Poku, Koki Saito and Jake Clarke-Slater First Half Like last week it was Portsmouth who were on top to start this game. Fratton Park was electric with excitement for the new season. Pompey were able to get forward and run at the Queens Park Rangers defence but just lacked that quality in the final third. Pompey scored what will go down as a goal of the season contender with a long range effort from Terry Devlin after 15 minutes. Zak Swanson played a long ball into the box Conor Shaughnessy headed it across the box but it was headed away by the defender straight to Ebou Adams, who played it back to Terry Devlin, the QPR players failed to close Devlin down allowing the full back to hit a strike from around 25 yards out into the right side of the goal to break the deadlock. It then all went wrong for the home side as Pompey had a sloppy 5-10 minutes after the hydration break with loose passes and failing to keep hold of the ball. QPR capitalised on this and equalised in the 33rd minute. Poku picked up the ball on the left side of the box to play it back to Harvey Vale, the Irish man chipped in a ball towards goal, Nicolas Schmid didn’t get off his line, and Ilias Chair poked it past the keeper from close range in front of the travelling fans. QPR then took the lead just seven minutes later Rumar Burrell played a sideways pass on the halfway line to Ilias Chair who played Koki Saito in on goal, Pompey had three players closing him down but Saito’s shot took a deflection to beat Schmid and gave QPR the lead. QPR started to run riot in the first half as they extended their lead just before half time to silence Fratton Park. It was another quick break away from QPR to set off Amadou Saif Mbengue on the right hand side he played in a low cross past Regan Poole and into the path of Chair who lifted it over Schmid to get his second goal of the game. Second Half Pompey made one change at half time as Luke Brooke Smith came off for Ryan Kavuma-McQueen to make his debut. Pompey were able to dominate possession but couldn’t do much with it Abu Kamara, Rocco Shein and Mcqueen all had efforts from long range comfortably saved by Pierce Charles and Connor Shaughnessy had a free header go wide of the left post. It was a bitterly disappointing and frustrating start to the season for Pompey, this game made it clear this squad is crying out for an experienced left winger and a number six. One positive was McQueen made a great impact after coming on getting past the QPR defenders getting balls into the box and getting shots off.