Portsmouth will 'want revenge' - Stephan
Stephan: 'Injuries had a big impact last season'
- Published
QPR open their Championship season away to Portsmouth on Saturday - and head coach Julien Stephan says it is important not to expect a repeat of the thrashing they handed the visitors back in March.
Stephan's side were 3-0 up inside the first half hour and ended up winning 6-1 at Loftus Road.
But, speaking to BBC Radio London, Stephan said: "I don't think the previous result will have a great importance on Saturday.
"They [Portsmouth] will probably want to have revenge. I can understand that. In reality, when you restart the season, it's just a reset.
"You have to forget what happened the season before because all the teams restart with zero points.
"That's why it's very exciting to restart the new season each time because you have a lot of hope for good things.
"We respect Portsmouth a lot, but the main thing is to stay focused on QPR, how we want to play, how we want to manage this game [and] how we want to win the balance of power."
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