The Black Cats recorded a 1-0 pre-season win over Augsburg in Germany
Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris
Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris at Augsburg(Image: Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
Head coach Regis Le Bris praised his Sunderland side’s progress after they won only their second pre-season friendly win in seven attempts.
A goal from Habib Diarra gave them a 1-0 win over FC Augsburg, which highlighted improving connections, rising fitness, and the importance of clinical finishing. It was the club’s first win since the opening pre-season fixture at South Shields.
Diarra firied in from 20 yards after slick interplay between Granit Xhaka and Simon Adingra and that was enough to beat limited opposition.
Eliezer Mayenda then missed from the spot after Reinildo Mandava was brought down, before Robin Roefs – impressive throughout and seemingly set to take Anthony Patterson’s berth – saved Philip Tietz’s penalty at the other end.
Le Bris was encouraged to see clear progress and valuable lessons from his team’s latest outing.
“We are a work in progress,” he said.
“After the game you can feel that the team is improving in different areas.
“I think we created many chances. We are not clinical – still an important part – because if we do that in the Premier League, we won’t have many chances and we have to be very clinical when we get this opportunity.
“Out of possession, we worked well. We can feel that week after week, they are getting better because the fitness level is higher now and the references are better.
“The new connections take time and we need many experiences to develop this part of the group.
“We need this kind of game – sometimes we lose it, sometimes we win – to get this experience.
“We have to keep the identity. We have to play as a unit and give the new connections time, but we feel like we are improving.”
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