Barclays Premier League
- Venue: Craven Cottage
- Date: Monday, 1 April
Fulham striker Bryan Ruiz faces a late fitness after he picked up a
hamstring injury while playing for Costa Rica during the week.
Mahamadou Diarra has been ruled out until the end of the season as he requires knee surgery.
QPR striker Bobby Zamora has been declared fit after overcoming a recent ankle injury and a bout of flu.
Harry Redknapp is mulling over whether to recall Adel Taarabt, but he has no other injury problems.
MATCH PREVIEW
The meeting at Craven Cottage is a clash between two former Tottenham managers as Fulham's Martin Jol and QPR's Harry Redknapp square off.LAWRO'S PREDICTION
"There is a bit of a gap between QPR and safety after they lost to Aston Villa last time out but, in all honesty, I watched that game and in the first half hour QPR had enough chances to win it."Fulham got a great result against Spurs in their last game and thoroughly deserved their victory. Because it is QPR, and because it will be a tense and tight affair, I fancy Fulham to win again."
Fulham were shock winners at
Spurs last time out and are on a four-match unbeaten run. Martin Jol has
earmarked former Fulham striker Bobby Zamora, who joined QPR in January
2012 as the opponents' chief threat : "Bobby wanted to move. He felt he
could help QPR. Hopefully after our game, he will help them.
"If he is fit he can help any team because he is a good
striker. When he played he did ever so well but he missed 30 or 40 per
cent of the games.
"He has got all the qualities, but when Bobby was not there we had a problem up front and that is why we changed it and now we have Bryan Ruiz and Hugo Rodallega and Dimitar Berbatov and most of the time they are fit to select."
QPR's first win under Harry Redknapp came against Fulham back in December. They will kick-off seven points from safety after the weekend's results so a first league double of the season is essential to get their survival hopes back on track following defeat at Aston Villa.
Their first-team coach Joe Jordan has talked up The R's attacking threat. "We have the players now that are capable of taking the game to the opposition. We have a depth now that we didn't have (before).
"When we arrived here we could only really play in a certain way, but that has changed now. We had to defend and play on the break, whereas now we can take the game to the opposition when it is needed.
"Performance-wise, we are improving all the time and there is a belief in the camp, because we are playing well."
MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head- QPR have lost on their previous three visits to Fulham, including a 6-0 thrashing on their last trip to Craven Cottage in October 2011. It's their heaviest-ever Premier League defeat.
- QPR's 2-1 victory in the reverse fixture in December was their first win of the season at the 17th time of asking.
- Before that 2-1 win in December, they had not scored in six matches against Fulham.
- Fulham are unbeaten in four league games (W2, D2).
- They have scored 40 league goals this season. They have only scored more after 29 matches in one other season - 2003-04, when they scored 42.
- Dimitar Berbatov has scored in each of his last three league matches - the last Fulham player to score in four consecutive league matches was Steed Malbranque between January and February 2003.
- QPR have won just two of their last 28 away matches in the Premier League.
- They are unbeaten in four league matches against London clubs. Their last defeat was a 1-0 to Arsenal in October.
- Adel Taarabt is set to make his 150th Queens Park Rangers appearance, while Andros Townsend could make his 100th career league appearance.
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