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22/1/2023 | 05:45pm
Sunderland bounced again from their 3-1 defeat to Swansea final week by beating rivals Middlesbrough 2-0 on the Stadium of Gentle within the Championship on Sunday.
Amad Diallo missed a wonderful probability to open the scoring early on within the match as a dreadful cross out from Zach Steffen introduced him with a transparent shot on purpose, which he despatched broad of the far publish.
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Ross Stewart then had a purpose disallowed for offside as he swept the ball into the highest nook after following up on a save from the Boro keeper, just for the linesman to accurately increase his flag.
The primary large second within the match got here within the forty ninth minute as Dael Fry was proven a straight pink card for pulling Stewart down because the striker entered the field.
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Sunderland’s centre-forward failed to search out the again of the online from the preliminary strike from the spot however was capable of faucet the ball into an empty web after Steffen’s parry rebounded straight again to the quantity 14.
Diallo then made up for his early miss by ending the sport off with ten minutes to go as he sized up Middlesbrough’s defence within the field earlier than brilliantly smashing the ball into the again of the online.
While Stewart and Amad have been the matchwinners for the Black Cats with their strikes within the second half, the true hero of the sport was left-back Aji Alese because the teenager put in a unbelievable efficiency on the again.
Earlier than coming off with an damage within the seventieth minute, with Sunderland successful 1-0, the previous West Ham academy gem was essential to protecting Boro at bay by making a string of important defensive interventions.
As per Sofascore, the 22-year-old made an attention-grabbing eight tackles and interceptions, while additionally making two clearances, as he consistently lower out opposition assaults to win the ball again for his facet – with no different Sunderland participant matching his ten mixed tackles, interceptions, and clearances.
Alese received 9 of his 12 duels (75%) in whole and this reveals that the warrior was dominant all through the sport.
He didn’t enable the opposition’s attackers to outmuscle him within the majority of his battles and this was crucial to Sunderland’s clear sheet earlier than his departure from the match, together with his very good defending offering the platform for the likes of Diallo and Stewart to win the sport.
Mowbray will now be hoping that the full-back’s newest damage setback is just not a critical one as his efficiency on Sunday was a well timed reminder of the standard he possesses.