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Cifuentes Frustrated By Penalty Incidents - Ipswich Town News

QPR boss Martí Cifuentes was pleased with his side’s display against the Blues as they drew 0-0 at Portman Road, but felt his side ought to have been awarded two penalties.

Cifuentes was delighted with the reaction following the 2-0 loss to Millwall at the Den on Tuesday but believed they should have been awarded two penalties, one after sub Paul Smyth went to ground as he was challenged by Luke Woolfenden and the other for handball against Kayden Jackson in the dying seconds.

"A good answer from my guys after a disappointing performance on Boxing Day, against a very good side,” he said.

"I think Ipswich is one of the teams that I like the most in the league, the way we play. They have been really, really strong this season, especially at home, scoring a lot of goals, creating a lot of chances and I think today we did a good job.

"Sometimes football is a little bit more than the tactic and the training, but also the togetherness, the capacity to build as a team some kind of identity and I think that today the answer from the guys in terms of how committed they were against a very good team, was excellent.

"We competed at a very good level during all the game and perhaps some marginal situations could have gone our way and we could have taken the three points.

"We hit the post, the most clear chance of the game, probably, and we had a couple of situations. Usually I don’t like to speak to the refs, but I have the feeling in the last few games we had three or four situations that could easily have gone our way.

"I’m not the kind of manager that will be hearing crying about the referee’s decision, I think that the ref has a very difficult job, they have been excellent today for 95 minutes, but unfortunately there were two situations for me that in the last minute it seemed that we could play an NBA game, it was allowed to take a rebound in the box. It was a clear handball.”

He added: "I don’t want to focus all the talk on the ref, but I’ve seen the images, I think it’s a clear penalty, an extended arm, handball.

"Every year with the handball rule it’s very tricky because they try to change it and I think in the end all of us, we get confused. But, as I understand it, if it’s an extended arm, non-natural position inside the box, it’s a clear penalty.

"Especially, the first situation [with Smyth] was quite clear. I don’t understand, but that’s how it is, that’s the game.”

Reflecting further on the performance, he added: "We need just to get better, hopefully this can be the foundation to have a good performance against Cardiff and we look forward.”

Regarding the delay in play due to a medical emergency, he said: "It’s always a difficult situation because we didn’t know much more than it was a medical emergency and all my thoughts are with the family and the friends.

"We tried just to adjust to the situation and the players did a good job. I think we started the second half in a focused way, but it’s always tricky to keep the players warm and actually Chrissy Willock was a bit on the edge today, we tried to push him and after all these delays and the warm-up, he felt that he was not ready.”


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