Sunderland boss Regis le Bris speaking to Sky Sports: “The first half was OK, not bad, but we didn’t threaten the opponent’s defence enough and conceded a goal on a set piece. Second half more ambitious, taking more risks and the subs helped. It was the most important statement at this stage in the season, that the group is still a unit. It’s never easy, two games before the end to keep everyone aligned but this was the case. So I’m really pleased by the subs as well.<\/p>\n
“We are becoming ambitious. It’s reality now because we have one more game and we have the opportunity to achieve something really special. Now it’s just a final and we’ll see.<\/p>\n
“It’s the club and the team, the staff and the direction we are really well-aligned. It makes a difference at the end so I’m proud of that.<\/p>\n
“Our fans were loud today so I imagine they will be louder next week. They deserve it, they are always really supportive. We have highs and lows and they were still behind us. I hope that we can enjoy the last fixture at home.”<\/p>\n
Message to players before next week? “Consistency, standards and ready to be competitive. You have to manage the expected and also the unexpected. If you are ready and prepare well you give yourself the best chance to be successful. Consistency, team work and connections.”<\/p>\n
Sunderland midfielder Enzo Le Fee speaking to BBC Match of the Day: “We just said we played well in the first half but the last 30 metres we were a bit quiet. We needed more fire and I think we did well. The guys who came on had a perfect attitude and this is the team, the family we have had since the beginning of the season. We can be proud.<\/p>\n
“The second goal, and even the third, can be the game. The reaction in the second half was perfect but after the first goal we kept going. That’s the most important thing.<\/p>\n
“Nobody likes defeat. Our strength is to be together in the good moments and the bad ones as well. What we did all season is always react in a good way and we did it after the first half today. We can be proud of us. At the beginning of the season we said we have to be a family and a team.”<\/p>\n
On goal celebration: “Since I was young, I liked Spiderman, my favourite hero. That’s why and with my little brother so it’s a sign for him. I should’ve done the celebration a long time ago but I didn’t score. A good moment so I was happy to score in front of our fans.”<\/p>\n
On push for European football: “We want the best for this team always and we did well. We should be in a better position today because we had some games we should win as well but it wasn’t the case. We can be proud. We keep working hard as we have all season. One more final to play at home against Chelsea. A good game to finish the season.”<\/p>\n
Did you know?<\/p>\n
Sunderland have gained more points from losing positions than any other side in the Premier League this season (22), while it’s the Black Cats’ most across a single campaign in the competition.<\/p>\n
Brian Brobbey has scored seven goals across 30 Premier League appearances this season \u2013 the most by a Sunderland player in their debut top-flight campaign with the club since Fabio Borini in 2013-14 (also seven).<\/p>\n
Sunderland’s Chris Rigg provided his very first assist in the Premier League \u2013 becoming the youngest ever player to do so for the Black Cats in the competition (18y 333d).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunderland boss Regis le Bris speaking to Sky Sports: “The first half was OK, not bad, but we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-589327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}