Sunderland beat Newcastle United 1-0 at the Stadium of Light last weekend.

Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka has claimed that Newcastle United played with “fear” at the Stadium of Light last weekend, and that the Black Cats’ winning mentality ultimately proved to be the difference between the two sides.

A headed Nick Woltemade own goal handed all three points to the hosts on Sunday afternoon, with Eddie Howe’s visitors struggling to find any kind of rhythm in a raucous atmosphere on Wearside.

And in a fresh interview with Sky Sports, Xhaka has suggested that Newcastle struggled to deal with the occasion.

What did Granit Xhaka say about Sunderland derby victory over Newcastle United?

When asked how highly Sunday’s win ranked amongst the best days of his career, Xhaka responded: “Very high, to be honest. How I said to you, the week was special. I had many derbies in my career already, but the feeling this week was special. Even for me, even with my age and my experience, it was not a normal week. We had this feeling every day. But I saw, how I said, many, many videos about emotional videos with our fans. Even after the game, seeing people happy and crying and just a feeling like, ‘Wow, we did it’.

“After so many years, the struggling and all these things, the rival is doing very well in the past couple of years. It's just a feeling you can't describe with words. I'm just happy that we are part of this club, we are part of this team, part of this moment. It will always stay very high in my career.”

The Swiss veteran was also asked whether the atmosphere at the Stadium of Light had an impact on the contest, to which he replied: “You start to have this adrenaline right before the game. You know that this game, you can't lose it. Whatever happens, you don't lose it. If you take a draw, you take a draw, but don't lose it.

“This was exactly the mentality we had on the pitch. I had the feeling we wanted it more than them. They had a little bit of fear in their legs, in their eyes. This is my feeling, to us, not to lose, and we wanted to win. This is the difference we had in this game. I think we wanted much more than them. In the end, we were lucky with our own goal and all these things, but I don't believe in luck if you don't provoke it. We provoked it a lot and deserved three points.”

He continued: “The stadium is just special. Not because of this game, but since I arrived the first day here, the atmosphere was unbelievable. I always said, and I said maybe as well, after a couple of days when I arrived here, we need to stick together. It doesn't matter what happened. You just came up, you have new players, you have different types of staff, you have players who need to connect with each other. It needs time.

“Of course, where we are today is much deserved because the people are seeing us every day here, how we work, how hard, the discipline, the respect between each other. The energy we have in this building is unbelievable. You just can achieve things when you are like a family. Then you put everything on the pitch, you win, you draw, you lose, whatever. But to stick together is a key word for me and this is the feeling we have at the moment.”

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Xhaka also referenced the picture that the Sunderland squad took of themselves in front of the Roker End after the final whistle, a direct response to a similar photo that Newcastle posed for after winning at the Stadium of Light in the FA Cup third round last year.

He said: “The picture of a special moment, let's say that. We have a couple of guys, they played against Newcastle two or three years ago. They told us from the start of the week, the pain is still there. Of course, we didn't know from the outside why, so they said to us that they did a picture in our own stadium.

“I'm a big fan of this - if you win away, take the three points, go home, but to do a picture, you provoke someone as well. I believe in karma a lot. The guys straight away said, ‘Let's do the picture’. It's our home. They need to give us a little bit more respect than to do the picture. It was a nice picture for sure.”

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