The R’s captain told his teammates ahead of the Championship kickoff at the City Ground that “we can change history today”.
Queens Park Rangers captain Toni Leistner has spoken out on how he motivated his teammates in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest in the Championship.
History was not on QPR’s side, the west Londoners having never won at the City Ground in 34 previous attempts dating back to January 1934, according to 11v11.
However, Steve McClaren’s charges quite literally rewrote history on the Reds’ home turf as the 28-year-old headed home on the stroke of half time for the solitary goal of the match.
At the other end, QPR repelled all of their opponents’ attack for their eighth clean sheet of the season, overtaking the tally of seven from the 2017-18 campaign.
The result in Nottingham ensured that the R’s would be spending Christmas 10th in the table, and Leistner commented on the historic result following the game.
“We are all very proud to write history with the first ever win for QPR at this ground,” Leistner told the official club website. “It was an unbelievable performance from the lads.
“I said in the circle before the game that we can change history today. We were full of confidence going into the game after beating Middlesbrough. We have good players and people in this squad and we believe there is no one we can’t beat.”
Up next for QPR is a home game against Ipswich Town on Boxing Day, followed by Reading at Loftus Road on Saturday and Aston Villa away on New Year’s Day, with the busy period capped off by the FA Cup third-round visit of Leeds United on Saturday 6 January.
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