Resilient Watford hold on after Capoue strikes
It was not pretty but Watford are the first team into the hat for the FA Cup quarter-finals and, with 13 Premier League teams already out, can begin dreaming of Wembley.
This was hardly the stuff that dreams are made of but there are no prizes for the manner of victory in a knockout competition.
When it mattered, Etienne Capoue was on hand to guide home the only goal of the game on the stroke of half-time – as it happened, Watford’s only shot on target.
“I think it was a very close game,” said Javi Gracia, the Watford manager. “QPR had the most clear chances to score at the end.
“Maybe it wasn’t our best game but we knew it would be a very demanding game. If we speak about what we do in the future, maybe it’s a bit of a lack of respect for the teams we will play against. To do something special, the only thing we have to do is to keep focused on the things we are doing.”
Gracia had received criticism for making 11 changes in the previous round at Newcastle, despite his team winning 2-0.
Here the Spaniard made five and, on paper, Watford appeared too strong for QPR, though that is not how it transpired.
Steve Mcclaren’s team more than held their own and should have equalised at the death when Toni Leistner contrived to miss the target from a yard out after Darnell Furlong had smashed the ball across goal.
It was a game of few chances and QPR also could manage only one effort on target. That came in the first half, during which they were certainly the better side, when Nahki Wells’s volley was tipped round the post by Heurelho Gomes, celebrating his 38th birthday.
Play was scrappy, with Michael Oliver constantly whistling for a series of petty fouls, and the only goal came in a similar fashion.
Jose Holebas’s deep cross was met by Tom Cleverley, whose miscued volley ran straight to Capoue. His shot ricocheted low into the corner of the net, moments before the half-time whistle blew.
“That’s the third game in six days,” said Mcclaren. “To play at that intensity and level against a top Premier League team, I was proud of them.
“We lost the game to a set-play and I think Watford showed great resilience. We were very close but not close enough. You don’t win if you don’t score.
“We really started on the front foot. We were aggressive and caused them problems.”
Watford were quick to applaud their 2,654 travelling supporters, who ended the evening singing of Wembley.
“We showed character at the end with the way everyone dug in and the celebrations at the end,” said Troy Deeney, the Watford captain.
“We don’t want to lose. We need to keep giving these performances. We are not playing that well but are grinding it out. In older days, we might have lost this.”
QPR came into the game on the back of five straight Championship defeats but can take heart from this display.
In Luke Freeman they had the game’s best player, although Wells and Matt Smith failed to capitalise on much of his creative play.
Rangers have not reached the quarter-finals since 1995, when they lost to Manchester United. For them, the wait goes on.