Sunderland 0-0 Leeds United: Black Cats Held To Hard-fought Point In Improved Display

Sunderland were held to a 0-0 draw against Leeds United in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon as Regis Le Bris' side halted their losing streak in the league with a vastly improved performance in both defence and attack.

Le Bris made several changes to his Sunderland starting XI from the midweek Europa League draw at Lech Poznan, seeing Chris Rigg start for his 100th Black Cats appearance, Brian Brobbey returning to red and white action after weeks out with a hamstring strain, with Nordi Mukiele and Luke O’Nien continuing their partnership in central defence and Nilson Angulo preferred to Malick Fofana out wide.

The first and best opportunity of the opening half came at the feet of Brobbey, who latched onto a through ball before his teasing low shot was saved well by James Trafford to prevent it rifling into the bottom corner. 

Later in the half, the Dutch number nine was among the attacking action again, with Brobbey bearing down on goal but seeing his effort smothered by Trafford, who was once again called into action in the opening exchanges. 

Trafford was repeatedly booed by the Stadium of Light faithful for taking his time when releasing the ball, and that noise around the stands seemed to spur Sunderland on more on the field, with several strong challenges coming from the Black Cats as Trai Hume did so in typically robust fashion. 

Angulo, who was the brightest spark for Sunderland in the first half with some flashes of technical brilliance and improved intent to attack at his full-back, enjoyed a fantastic cut inside and drove inside to buy the Black Cats a free-kick, which went wasted. 

Sunderland continued to play some tidy football in key areas but largely failed to breach the Leeds defence, but the positive signs were there at the interval despite it remaining a goalless stalemate, with Le Bris’ side vastly improved in and out of possession from last weekend’s horror show at Bournemouth. 

Moments into the second half, Mukiele went down injured after an accidental heavy clash with teammate O’Nien in Sunderland’s half and was down for multiple minutes, seeing the French defender unfortunately withdrawn and forcibly replaced with Omar Alderete by Le Bris.

Mukiele’s absence coincided with a poor start to the second half from Sunderland, but the Black Cats burst back into life with some extended presence in the Leeds half, seeing Angulo call Trafford into action with a testing strike. 

Angulo’s continued trickery tested Trafford yet again moments later and also brought a cynical foul from Jadon Bogle, who was bizarrely not booked. 

Brobbey lasted just over an hour on his return from injury, and battled well but was replaced by Timur Tutieov, who netted his first senior Sunderland goal on Thursday in Poznan. 

Later in the half Robin Roefs was forced into a stellar stop by Ao Tanaka, with Leeds proving dangerous on the counterattack.

Sunderland continued to probe but failed to carve open a clear-cut chance on Trafford’s goal as Leeds looked intent on hanging on for a point rather than pressing for three.

Leeds and the Black Cats both had late efforts, but the spoils were shared in a result which was fair on reflection for both sides. 

However, it was the improvement in the intensity, dynamism and overall performance compared to the last few weeks that was much more important for Sunderland than the solitary yet solid point.

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