Sunderland cemented their place in the top half of the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Wolves
Wolves boss Vitor Pereira said Sunderland did not deserve their 2-0 win at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
Pereira took a veiled dig at Sunderland's style and reliance on set pieces after watching his side fall to defeat, with the Black Cats dominating territory in the first half and taking the lead through Nordi Mukiele. Wolves improved after the break and had the better of the second half, but conceded a late own goal as Sunderland swept forward from a corner.
Pereira criticised how his team started and ended the game, but insisted that Sunderland had also been poor in a first half they largely controlled.
"In my point of view, a poor first half from both teams, my opinion," Pereira said.
"A lot of throw-ins to talk about. The first half, I need to talk about throw-ins, free kicks, and the time that we waste to do it. I don't see any game. I'm trying to remember what we did in the first half and wha Sunderland did. The game was very poor, my opinion. This is my opinion.
“Second half, for 30 minutes, we changed completely. We play in the in the way that we work every day, doing the movements, creating chances, playing with possession, keeping the ball, not allowing them to play because they create problems with the throw-ins and the free kicks. They create problems [from set plays], of course. This is part of the game, I'm not here to judge.
"We have 30 minutes with quality, three or four chance to to score the goal but we miss the chance. This is our problem, because we cannot miss in Premier League, we cannot miss this kind of chance. And the last 15 minutes we stop playing. We start to play long balls and long balls and long balls and we stop playing. It means that the game was a poor game, in my opinion, and they score the second goal. It means in the end of this game, they score two goals. They win the game and we have the chance to score and we didn't.
"Today, we came with the intention to win the game, but we we face a team playing at home. They are in a good moment with spirit, and in the end 2-0 is painful because they didn't play the football to win 2-0 today. But they scored and we missed the chance to score. That's why they won the game and congrats to them."
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What Régis Le Bris said about Sunderland’s win
“I'm really pleased with the first half,” Le Bris said.
“It was like expected.We had our game plan, the way to manage their press. We created chances and generated a strong momentum. We scored once, which was positive. But my regret is that we didn't score the second goal. And I think it's normal to expect after this first half a reaction from our opponent. And they did well during the second half, so it was totally different. But we defended together, showed this togetherness again, this ability to suffer together, and get this clean sheet, which is positive. Even if, as a coach, we would like to play the first half a bit longer, like that, to dominate, to be a bit more controlled. But it's obvious that in this league, probably the second half will repeat again [in future]. And if you are strong on this side, I think it's like versatility in different phases, and we need this. It's important.”
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