Sunderland drew 1-1 with Liverpool on Wednesday evening.

NBC pundits Tim Howard and Danny Higginbotham have heaped praise on Sunderland for their gutsy performance against Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday evening.

The Black Cats mustered up another eye-catching display to come away with a 1-1 draw from the home of the defending Premier League champions. Chemsdine Talbi gave the visitors the lead with a deflected strike from distance before the Reds dragged themselves level courtesy of a deflected shot of their own; Florian Wirtz’s effort would ultimately go down as a Nordi Mukiele own goal.

Sunderland could also have gone on to win it at the death, with Wilson Isidor breaking away and rounding goalkeeper Alisson Becker, only to be denied by Federico Chiesa on the line.

Nevertheless, Regis Le Bris’ men can take heart from another solid showing against one of the top flight’s traditional heavyweights, as pointed out by both former Everton goalkeeper Howard and ex-Black Cats defender Higginbotham in their post-match analysis.

What did Tim Howard and Danny Higginbotham say about Sunderland’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool?

Speaking on NBC after the final whistle, Howard said: “Well, you know, you have to credit Sunderland. We talked at half-time, it was 0-0, it was nervy. Sunderland get the goal to go ahead. Even then, defensively, Liverpool didn't look great on that play.

“But yes, they're at home - I talked about the Anfield crowd - they're going to will their team to push forward. Sunderland at that stage, even though they're a newly promoted team, and they've done really well, this is still a gimme for them. So they had the ability to go 1-0 ahead and say, ‘Okay, well, we're going to hold out here, and if we win, we win. If we draw, we draw’. But that's still a good result.”

The Echo has launched a new WhatsApp SAFC Channel to bring the latest news, analysis and team & injury updates direct to your phone. Simply click this link to join our SAFC WhatsApp channel.

Higginbotham agreed, adding: “Yeah, and one of the biggest things you see, you saw the players walking off the pitch then for Sunderland - obviously got the smiles on their faces - but then you look at [Granit] Xhaka, there's the disappointment that they didn't win at Anfield. And that tells you where they are at the moment.

“And I think what we've seen with a number of teams this season is they prioritised defending. Sunderland are key to that. You look at all the players playing in this team for Sunderland... I'm sure you've played with some wonderful defenders, but you also played with some defenders that didn't necessarily want to defend. They wanted to go forward.

“This Sunderland team, they love to defend. They love to defend. They love to put their body on the line. You see all the different players for them, and they have adjusted to the Premier League unbelievably well. I think what sets them apart from a number of teams in the Premier League is that they still value defending, and there's a number of teams that don't. So Sunderland are going to be very, very difficult to beat because of the manner in which they go about games.”

Your next Sunderland read: Régis Le Bris delivers verdict on Wilson Isidor's late miss as Sunderland draw at Liverpool