Joao Pedro underlined his stature as one of the best players outside of the Premier League by scoring both goals as Watford comfortably beat Reading 2-0 in their final game at Vicarage Road before the World Cup break.

The Brazilian gave the Hornets the lead with a 15th-minute penalty after being hauled down around the neck by Ovie Ejaria. After going close with two other chances in the second half, he then made the points safe with another composed finish three minutes from time as the hosts bounced back from Saturday’s defeat to Coventry City to move up to fifth in the table.

Pedro will get the headlines for his goals but this was another strong all-round showing as he prompted and probed when his side were attacking, but also did the defensive side of his job well.

Watford were much the better of the two sides offensively, and had the opportunities to put the points to bed before they finally did against a Reading side who offered relatively little going forward to the extent that Daniel Bachmann was rarely troubled; Hamza Choudhury having an impressive game to help protect the solid back four and also contribute going forward.

With Francisco Sierralta and Hassane Kamara suspended after picking up their fifth yellow cards of the season, Slaven Bilic was forced into two changes from the side that was beaten 1-0 by the Sky Blues. In came Christian Kabasele and Yaser Asprilla, with Ken Sema moving to left-back.

Reading also lost at home in their last game, 2-1 to Preston North End on Friday night, and Paul Ince opted to freshen his team up by making six changes.

The hosts sought to make the early running and had a good opportunity to test Royals keeper Joe Lumley in the seventh minute when Dan Gosling was fouled on the edge of the D as he sought to win back possession from another free-kick. However, Sema could only find the wall with his first effort and then struck his follow-up over the top.

Reading were the more composed on the ball in the opening stages, but it was their opponents who had the next semblance of an opening in the 13th minute when Choudhury spread a superb pass out to Ismaila Sar. He came infield and the ball was worked across the attacking line to Keinan Davis, who couldn’t get a shot away, but Asprilla on the follow-up saw his effort deflected behind.

The visitors were unable to clear their lines from the resultant corner and as Pedro tried to work himself an opening, he was hauled down around the neck by Ejaria, leaving James Linington with the easiest of decisions to point to the spot.

The Brazilian took the responsibility and after composing himself, he confidently sent Lumley the wrong way to put the Hornets 1-0 up.

It took a fine stop from the Reading keeper to prevent the Hornets from doubling their lead in the 22nd minute, showing fine reactions to drop down quickly to his right to keep out a right-footed effort from ten yards following a Sarr cross from the left after the on-loan Aston Villa striker had nutmegged Tom Holmes to set the hosts away.

Lumley though, needed treatment after making that save as he prevented Pedro from following up and he was forced to concede defeat after trying to continue, Dean Bouzanis replacing him between the posts in the 32nd minute.

Asprilla received the first yellow card of the match two minutes later when he tried to tackle Baba Rahman, but took the man and not the ball.

However, it didn’t take Reading long to even up the card count as Ejaria was booked for taking out Pedro near halfway.

It took until a minute before the break for the visitors to muster their first attempt on goal, Jeff Hendrick stabbing an angled effort wide of the post after being picked out on the right side of the area by a long free-kick.

Watford were asking for a second penalty three minutes into injury time when Davis went down under a challenge from Rahman, but the referee appeared to view this as more of a shoulder-to-shoulder clash and waved away the appeals as the hosts took their one-goal lead into the break.

The Hornets’ first attempt of the second half was an audacious one as Pedro, spotting Bouzanis off his line, went for the spectacular from all of 45 yards, but put it over by some distance.

Sema was booked for handling the ball on the ground moments later after getting muscled off the ball by Lucas Joao on halfway, but it was Reading who were asking most of the questions at the start of the second period, with Ejaria almost getting in around the back from a Tom Ince cross from the right.

Watford started to put together some progressive passages of play thereafter without really threatening to break through, with Paul Ince making a second change after 62 minutes as Mamadou Loum replaced Sam Hutchinson.

Soon after, Watford had their first good opening of the second period when Pedro hit a low drive from the edge of the area which Bouzanis had to go full length to tip around the far post.

Bilic made his first change after 65 minutes, bringing on Samuel Kalu for Asprilla, who had worked hard but had found it harder to make too many telling contributions from a wider attacking midfield role.

After Rahman had been booked for pulling back Sarr, the Hornets had the next attempt when Pedro flicked a header up and wide following a corner from the right.

Reading had a promising set piece opportunity of their own when Gosling was penalised for a foul near the left side of his penalty area. Tyrese Fornah rolled the set piece back across the face of the 18-yard box to Tom Ince, who connected well enough with his left-footed strike but was unable to keep it down.

Watford went much closer with their next attempt though, Pedro seeing a shot from the edge of the deflected agonisingly wide of the far post after Sarr had squared the ball to him.

Paul Ince then turned to his big men on the bench, bringing on Yakou Meite and Andy Carroll for Ejaria and Joao with ten minutes of normal time remaining.

The Hornets looked like they could be in trouble when Meite skipped away from Sarr on the right and burst away, with Carroll racing up inside him, but William Troost-Ekong stuck with his man and did well to repel the danger.

The Hornets then went close again to a match-clinching second goal when Kalu lifted the ball over the defence to send Sarr away. He was forced wide by Bouzanis, but with the keeper stranded the Senegal forward lifted it over him from an acute angle, but Amadou Mbengue headed off the line for a corner.

But the decisive goal that Watford craved did arrive with three minutes remaining when Sarr played in a cross from the right, Bouzanis could only palm the ball out to the other side of the area where Pedro showed his composure again to get his head over the ball and drill a shot back across the keeper into the far corner to make certain of the points.

Bilic made three changes to help see out four minutes of injury time, the last of which gave Pedro the opportunity to be afforded a deserved standing ovation after another impressive display.

Watford: Bachmann; Gosling, Troost-Ekong, Kabasele, Sema; Choudhury, Kayembe; Asprilla (Kalu 65), Pedro (Dele-Bashiru 90), Sarr (Gaspar 90); Davis (Bayo 90). Subs not used: Okoye, Cathcart, Morris.

Reading: Lumley (Bouzanis 32); Yiadom, Mbengue, Holmes; Rahman; Hutchinson (Loum 62); Ince, Hendrick, Fornah, Ejaria (Meite 80); Joao (Carroll 80). Subs not used: Long, Guinness-Walker, Hoilett.

Bookings: Asprilla for a foul on Rahman (34); Ejaria for a foul on Pedro (37); Sema for handball (49); Rahman for a foul on Sarr (73); Loum for a foul on Kalu (79).

Attendance: 18,847.

Referee: James Linington.