Sunderland completed their Premier League preparations against Rayo Vallecano on Sunday
Sunderland fell to a heavy defeat against Rayo Vallecano in their final pre-season friendly.
An inexperienced Black Cats side were no match for a very impressive La Liga opponent and though there were some positives in solid performances from a few of Regis Le Bris’s ‘finishers’, Sunderland were ultimately outclassed by the better side on the day.
Arguably the biggest positive of the afternoon for Sunderland was that regardless of the result, returning players have already given the broader squad are far stronger look heading into the opening week of the Premier League season. Wilson Isidor, Chris Rigg and Anthony Patterson all returned for this game and got minutes under their belt, raising their chances of featuring next weekend.
In truth it had looked as if it would be a long afternoon for the Black Cats in the opening exchanges, Rayo Vallecano dominant and causing Sunderland a lot of problems. They were dominating possession but in Randy Nteka had a target man who could add some direct threat to those passing moves. Nteka should have put the visitors ahead inside six minutes when after a loose pass form Sunderland he won his duel with Triantis, dragging his effort wide of the near post with Patterson beaten.
The visitors, who finished eighth in La Liga last season, were by far the better team to begin with but the irony was that their opener came just as Sunderland looked to be getting to grips with the contest. Sunderland had registered their first effort of the game when Dan Neil had a shot from the edge of the area blocked from some good build up play, before down the other end Nteka again ran free inside the box after an attempted Chris Rigg backheel ceded possession. Nteka picked his pass to the back post, where De Frutos had the simplest of finishes from a matter of yards.
Sunderland did improve significantly thereafter, though they created little in the way of chances. Neil was impressing in the middle of the park and while both Harrison Jones and Alan Browne stuck to their tasks admirably, having two central midfielders operating down the left wing was unsurprisingly making the hosts a little predictable in possession. After a quiet start there were flashes of quality from Enzo Le Fee, two dangerous through balls from deep swept up very well by the opposition goalkeeper Augusto Batalla.
Rayo Vallecano made eight changes at the interval but there were was no drop off in the quality of their play. They had their second just a minute into the half when they broke through the middle of the pitch, finding Espino on the overlap. From the left-hand side of the box he drove his effort across Patterson, finding the back of the net via the inside of the post with Sunderland unable to get close enough to stop the shot. It should have been three moments later, Rivera sprung clear with a through ball. It looked like he would fire across Patterson but instead he went for the near post, the Sunderland goalkeeper making an excellent stop with his trailing leg.
As they did in the first half Sunderland steadied a little, but found themselves 3-0 down when an excellent cross to the back post beat Niall Huggins. The cross back inside then deflected off the full back, falling kindly for Izi Palazon to drive home from close range. It looked certain to be four in the following moments when just after Isidor had registered Sunderland's first meaningful shot, the visitors again sprung Rivera clear. He rounded Patterson and though Huggins initially made a good covering run, he was beaten and when Palazon took aim from a matter of yards, only a brilliant covering block from Tom Lavery stopped the goal.
Sunderland’s side got younger and more inexperienced as Le Bris rang the changes with just over 20 minutes to play, but fears that it could turn into a rout were unfounded. Sunderland were perhaps aided by Rayo Vallecano stepping off the pace a little, but they arguably should have got on the scoresheet in the closing stages.
Timur Tutierov was a handful and gave a focal point for Neil and Le Fee with his running in behind, denied a goal on a couple of occasions by a poor touch and a bit of bad luck. Milan Aleksic also had one big chance when Vallecano passed straight into his path, but on his weaker left foot he could only fire straight at the goalkeeper.
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