Burnley 0 Sunderland 0: Highlights as Tony Mowbray's side claim hard-fought draw at Turf Moor

Sunderland held Championship leaders Burnley to a goalless draw at Turf Moor
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The hosts saw most of the ball throughout the match, yet Tony Mowbray’s side defended admirably for large spells to keep their opponents at bay.

Sunderland even hit the bar in the second half when substitute Amad saw a deflected effort rebound off the woodwork.

Here’s how the game played out:

RECAP: Burnley 0 Sunderland 0

Key Events

  • Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, Batth, O’Nien, Gooch, Neil, Ekwah (Michut, 64), Roberts (Lihadji, 76), Pritchard (Ba, 76), Clarke, Gelhardt (Amad, 64)
  • Subs: Bass, Anderson, Cirkin, Michut, Ba, Lihadji, Amad
  • Burnley XI: Muric, Roberts, Beyer, Harwood-Bellis, Maatsen, Cullen, Brownhill, Benson (Vitinho, 83), Zaroury (Gudmundsson, 67), Tella, Barnes (Obafemi, 79).
  • Subs: Peacock-Farrell, Ekdal, Vitinho, Cork, Twine, Gudmundsson, Obafemi

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship fixture against Burnley.

The Black Cats are 11th in the table ahead of the match at Turf Moor but are dealing with several injury issues.

We’ll have all the build-up ahead of the match, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.

Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.

We’ll start with the Sunderland team news - and there are quite a few absentees.

Defender Dan Ballard has been ruled out for two to three weeks with a hamstring injury he picked up while playing for Northern Ireland this week.

Jewison Bennette was also sidelined while on international duty with Costa Rica, and is likely to miss the rest of the season after dislocating his shoulder.

Niall Huggins is closing in on a return but is likely to play another under-21s match before being considered for first-team selection.

There is positive news on defender Dennis Cirkin, though, who is expected to be available following his concussion.

Corry Evans, Ross Stewart, Elliot Embleton and Aji Alese remain out with long-term setbacks.

Mowbray on facing Burnley

Here’s what Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray had to say when asked about facing the Championship leaders:

“Like we have done in all of the games, we will be aggressive and attack the game.

“Sometimes the opposition’s team quality can push you back but we won’t go with the mindset of being defensive. We will go and take the game to them.

“As I have said over recent weeks, it is almost like a free hit for us. Let’s be positive and play our game. See if we can get some good movement around them and see how many chances we can create.

“The collective structure of the team, out of possession against a top team, you have to work hard like we have done against the top teams already.

“Norwich were a team that were in the Premier League recently and we went and did a decent job. We shouldn’t fear anyone really. We should go and have a go really and that’s what we intend to do on Friday night.”

How Burnley are shaping up

Burnley are 13 points clear at the top of the table and have lost just twice in the league all season.

To find out more, we caught up with Burnley reporter Dan Black from our sister title the Burnley Express on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast.

Here’s what he said when asked how Burnley will approach the game:

“I think if you were to look through the statistics there are probably not many games where they haven’t had 65% plus of the ball. They have been very, very dominant.

“They were dominant in earlier games of the season without it really clicking as much, but now it’s all come together and they are all understanding of each other’s’ positions and where they need to be.

“They are just going at teams from all different areas of the pitch and it’s frightening at times.

“As Burnley start taking more and more control and more and more territory teams drop deeper and are just sitting ducks at times.

“It’s 14 games this season now in which they’ve scored three or more goals and it could have been a lot more at times.”

Kompany on Sunderland

Burnley had 13 players who were called up for their countries during this month’s international break, and the majority had returned to Lancashire before Vincent Kompany’s pre-match press conference on Thursday afternoon.

The only exception was striker Lyle Foster, who represented South Africa in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match and was delayed due to a passport issue.

Striker Jay Rodriguez and Josh Brownhill may also miss tonight’s game after recently recovering from injury setbacks.

Here’s what Kompany had to say about Sunderland ahead of tonight’s match:

“If football was a language I think we speak a similar language. We are certainly from a similar family of languages, let’s put it this way.

“There are many things they do that for me, I think the threat of the wingers is something that is similar and we have also quite a good threat with our wingers. The midfielders that get on the ball and actually progress play, their ability to switch play and create space for the wide men. The way they attack the box as well.

“They are on the front foot most of the time so it’s a team that at least on that side I understand very well because like I said we are from a similar family of football.

“Those games are also usually interesting not just for the fans of the two teams but I think for the neutral as well. I think it’s in the DNA of both teams to go forward in this game and that’s what will happen.”

Here are our predicted line-ups for tonight’s match:

Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, Batth, O’Nien, Gooch, Neil, Michut, Roberts, Pritchard, Clarke, Gelhardt

Predicted Burnley XI: Muric, Roberts, Ekdal, Beyer, Maatsen, Gudmundsson, Cullen, Benson, Tella, Zaroury, Barnes

We’ve arrived at Turf Moor

What to make of those sides

So it’s three changes from the Sunderland side which started against Luton before the international break.

Lynden Gooch, Pierre Ekwah and Alex Pritchard come into the side, with Edouard Michut and Abdoullah Ba dropping to the bench. Dan Ballard misses out through injury.

It looks like Gooch will start at left-back with Luke O’Nien moving across to centre-back, while Ekwah is making his first Sunderland start since moving to Wearside from West Ham in January.

Dennis Cirkin is also back on the bench after recovering from his concussion.

Burnley have made five changes following their FA Cup defeat against Manchester City last time out.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Josh Brownhill and Manuel Benson back all return to the starting XI after injuries, while goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Ashley Barnes have also returned to the side.