Sunderland 0 Roma 2: Story of the day as Alex Neil's side are beaten in pre-season friendly
and live on Freeview channel 276
After a goalless first half, substitutes Felix Afena-Gyan and Nicolo Zaniolo were on target for the Italian side after the break.
Sunderland will now prepare to return to Wearside before travelling to Dundee United for their next pre-season fixture on Saturday.
Here’s how the game played out.
The Sunderland Echo's coverage of SAFC in Portugal is brought to you in association with Flex Joinery. Visit www.flexjoinery.co.uk for further details.
LIVE: Sunderland vs Roma
Key Events
- Sunderland fall to 2-0 defeat to AS Roma in Albufeira
- SAFC XI: Patterson; Gooch, Winchester, Batth, Cirkin; O’Nien, Matete; Dajaku, Embleton, Diamond; Clarke
- Subs: Hume, Kelly, Johnson, Ballard, Evans, Roberts, Neil, Carney, Pritchard, Spellman, Taylor, Sohna, Richardson
- Substitutes Afena-Gyan and Zaniolo with the second-half goals for Jose Mourinho’s side.
Where’s Rossco?
As you can see, no Ross Stewart in the squad today.
He didn’t take part in the full training session on Monday when we here, instead going through some of his own work with the physios. He looked K, but think it’s safe to assume they’re being precautionary. Jack Clarke will likely lead the line in his place.
Matchday.
— Phil Smith (@Phil__Smith) July 13, 2022
Roma 🐺 are in town. pic.twitter.com/PKd85tlUhT
Transfer latest
Alex Neil says Sunderland still have ‘a lot of work to do’ in the transfer market, but says the club have to be patient as they wait for the green light to press ahead in their pursuit of a number of targets.
The Black Cats boss was asked on Saturday whether he felt the club were close to their third signing of the window, to which he replied: “Listen, there’s no one round the corner ready to come in tomorrow morning.
“We have got discussions ongoing on a number of players where we’re talking on a daily basis. So we just need to wait and see what happens.”
Strong opposition
This will be Roma’s first official friendly of pre-season, yet Mourinho’s team did beat local side Trastevere 5-0 in a training match last week.
Since then several players who were involved in last month’s international fixtures have returned to training - including the likes of Lorenzo Pellegrini, Tammy Abraham and Bryan Cristante.
Former Manchester United players Chris Smalling and Nemanja Matic could also feature.
Team news
It could well be a fairly unfamiliar XI for Sunderland today.
It might not be quite as dramatic as initially planned, as Neil was preparing to make wholesale changes following Saturday’s match against Rangers.
After that match was abandoned at half-time due to a power cut, Neil may now choose to give the bulk of that XI more minutes.
Either way, what we’re going to see is a chance for a lot of players to make their mark against top-level European opposition.
Good Morning!
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s pre-season friendly against AS Roma.
The match is set to kick off at 11am, with the Echo’s chief Sunderland writer Phil Smith providing in-depth coverage from Estadio Municipal de Albufeira.
Stick around for live updates and analysis.