Sunderland are through to the fifth round of the FA Cup after a win at Oxford United
Régis Le Bris has been hit with an early blow ahead of Sunderland’s FA Cup fifth round tie next month after a key duo picked up their second booking of the competition on Sunday.
Both Trai Hume and second half substitute Noah Sadiki were shown a yellow card in Sunderland’s 1-0 win over Oxford United, and so will be suspended for the fifth round. FA Cup rules state that any player who picks up two yellow cards from the beginning of the competition proper will pick up a one-game suspension, with the cut off point coming at the end of the quarter final.
Defensively Le Bris will have plenty of options as his reshuffled backline impressed again at the Kassam Stadium, with Omar Alderete, Dan Ballard and Reinildo all rested entirely for the game. Sadiki will be a bigger miss in midfield, though Le Bris will hope that Granit Xhaka could be back from injury for the fifth round tie. The fifth round ties will be played across the weekend of 7th March, by which point Sunderland are hopeful that Xhaka and winger Bertrand Traoré will be back in action.
Sunderland have a number of players on one yellow card for the competition, and so will be at risk of a suspension in the next two rounds: Luke O’Nien, Nordi Mukiele, Wilson Isidor, Enzo Le Fee, Dan Ballard and Xhaka.
Sunderland will discover their fifth round opponent on Monday night, with the draw to take place during TNT Sports’ coverage of Macclesfield v Brentford at around 6.35pm. The draw will also be available to view on the TNT Sports YouTube page. Sunderland’s FA Cup run has already earned the club £248,500 with a further £238,000 up for grabs for the winner of their fifth round tie.
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What Régis Le Bris said about Sunderland’s win over Oxford United
“The result was the most important thing, getting through, and we were able to do that in the end,” Le Bris said.
“We expected a tough game, we had that last season when we came here, struggled and lost 2-0. They do some very direct play, winning second balls, and they have the ability to fight around the drop zone. That was a part of the game that was always going to be really important. We struggled with it a little bit in the first half, but I thought it was much better in the second half. We scored, which is always important, and I think that helped us to manage the match from that point on much better.”
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