Regis Le Bris reveals what pleased him most about Sunderland’s Marseille draw
The Black Cats picked up a 2-2 draw against Roberto De Zerbi’s Marseille in their final pre-season match
Sunderland head coach Régis Le Bris was pleased with the leadership his side showed to “solve difficult problems” during their final pre-season game. The Black Cats drew 2-2 with Olympique de Marseille at Bradford City’s Valley Parade.
An 80th-minute penalty from Adil Aouchiche ensured Sunderland’s hard-fought efforts weren’t without reward against the Ligue 1 outfit. Faris Moumbagna opened the scoring in the first 45 before Dennis Cirkin responded with a neat header on 52 minutes to level the game.
Ismael Kone then scored a superb solo goal to restore Marseille’s lead, but Aouchiche confidently dispatched a penalty 10 minutes from time as the Lads ended pre-season with a draw.
Speaking to safc.com post-match, Le Bris shared his delight at the way his players took responsibility and showed good energy to fight back against a strong opposition.
“It was a difficult problem,” he said. “I know this team. They have recruited a new head coach with new ideas which can be very difficult to solve. We had many problems against a team who wanted to keep the ball in the central corridor, attract us and then tried to find solutions inside our block or in behind our defence.
“We solved this problem many times. Sometimes we struggled, for sure, but it was interesting for us to improve our ideas the way we want to defend and the way we want to press high up the pitch. This experience will be useful for the next part of the season.
“It could be this kind of problem or others, but the main thing here is the way we want to solve as a team. Some of them can be anticipated, some of them arrive in real time so this is a question of mindset, of leadership and adaptation and this process is good at the minute. The result is not perfect but the whole energy is good.”
