Sunderland compared to former Bundesliga champions by Europa League rival

Lech Poznan head coach Niels Frederiksen has told his players they must learn from the lessons they received in their first two Europa League fixtures as they prepare to host Sunderland on Thursday evening.

The Black Cats have made a positive start to their first ever Europa League campaign after collecting maximum points from a home game against Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar and Portuguese second tier outfit Torreense. However, the same cannot be said of Thursday’s hosts after they followed up a 4-0 defeat at Sunderland’s Premier League rivals Crystal Palace on matchday one by falling to a home loss by the same scoreline against Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday night.

There was a positive note for Frederiksen after his side bounced back to winning ways with a 6-1 demolition of Ekstraklasa rivals Korona Kielce on Sunday afternoon as braces from Pablo Rodriguez and Mikael Ishak and a goal apiece from Patrik Walemark and Yannick Agnero helped move their side into second place in the table. However, it is in European competition where Frederiksen wants to see an improvement from his players as he warned they will face a Sunderland side that ‘will be close’ to the levels shown by the German giants.

He told the club website: “It was a difficult match against a better team. We were nervous in the game with and without the ball. The pace of the game was much higher than the one we are used to in the league. Bayer is a top European team and we had problems finding our quality. We played two matches in the Europa League, we lost both and it's a lesson for us. We don't like these results and someone may say that we are not good for the game here, but I don't think so, because we also have to look at our rivals. They are one of the best teams in this competition and we can have problems against them. Unfortunately, the next two teams will also be close to it, but we will try to win this next European meeting.”

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