Sunderland made a winning return to European football after 53 years away as Enzo le Fee’s penalty gave them victory over AZ Alkmaar on a memorable night at the Stadium of Light.<\/p>\n
The decisive moment came in the 66th minute when Le Fee composed himself to calmly roll the spot-kick into the bottom corner having been brought down at the end of a swift counter-attack.<\/p>\n
Roared on by a vociferous home crowd, the Black Cats had been much the better side in the first half of this Europa League opener but failed to take their chances – Le Fee coming closest with a shot that came back off the post.<\/p>\n
But AZ arrived boasting an unbeaten record and showed why in a much-improved second-half showing.<\/p>\n
Sunderland appeared to be clinging on in the closing stages before their Dutch opponents tired.<\/p>\n
Regis le Bris’ side should have extended their lead in the final moments, but missed chances were soon forgotten as the final whistle confirmed a first victory in European competition since 1973.<\/p>\n
It could have been so different had Ro-Zangelo Daal converted a brilliant early chance after being put through on goal by Kees Smit as AZ punished a slack Sunderland attempt to play out from the back.<\/p>\n
But Robin Roefs made the save and, from that moment, the home side bossed the first half.<\/p>\n
Kevin Danso saw a swerving shot pushed over the bar before Wilson Isidor created an opening for Le Fee with brilliant turn and cross, but the French midfielder’s side-footed effort hit the upright.<\/p>\n
With Sunderland piling on the pressure, half-time came at the perfect moment for AZ. When the game restarted, the visitors showed renewed vigour and their slick attacking play, previously squashed by Sunderland’s relentless press, was suddenly evident. <\/p>\n
Smit should have opened the scoring after showing great footwork in the box but dragged his left-foot shot wide before another Sunderland flurry.<\/p>\n
However, AZ were getting back on top at the moment Noah Sadiki charged forward on the counter and fed Le Fee, who was felled by substitute Weslley Patati inside the box.<\/p>\n
Le Fee duly converted and, while forced back, Sunderland largely kept AZ at arms’ length until the final 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
The Eredivisie side looked certain to score as the ball ricocheted around the penalty area, but Valdemar Byskov had two efforts blocked before Roefs made another vital save to deny Mexx Meerdink.<\/p>\n
Patati then fired another golden opportunity over the bar with five minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
But it was Sunderland who finished the stronger and Nilson Angulo will still be wondering how he failed to score from five yards out after a driving run from Brian Brobbey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunderland made a winning return to European football after 53 years away as Enzo le Fee’s penalty gave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-850241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}