Sunderland supporters booed their team off at half-time on Thursday and again at full-time. In between, Regis Le Bris made four substitutions and watched his side play considerably better without ever looking like scoring. Dinamo Zagreb won 2-0 at the Stadium of Light and barely had to extend themselves to do it.
The strange part is that this result does not wreck Sunderland's European campaign. They won their first two matches in the competition and remain outside the top eight only on goal difference at the halfway point of the league phase, exactly where Dinamo sit. The damage is elsewhere.
Two goals, both avoidable
Jules Ahoka had the first real opening, arriving on a Chris Rigg cross and heading straight at the goalkeeper. At the other end Granit Xhaka threw himself in front of a Dion Beljo shot that was heading in, and the block sent it behind for a corner. The relief lasted seconds. Xhaka could only glance the corner into the path of Luka Stojkovic, who killed it on his chest and thumped a volley home from 15 yards on 22 minutes.
Two minutes later Stojkovic and Beljo carved Sunderland open again for Mislav Orsic, who went round Robin Roefs only to see Thomas Meunier clear off the line. Meunier then miscued a cross that bounced back off his own far post. Sunderland were getting away with things, and they knew it.
The second goal came 17 minutes after the first and came from the same source. Stojkovic pounced on a poor Kevin Danso clearance and chipped a ball through for Beljo, who lifted a delicate finish over Roefs. Beljo has 18 goals in 18 games this season. Sunderland handed him a 19th chance and he took it as if he had been expecting it.
Le Bris changes four at the break
A quadruple substitution at half-time is a manager telling his players what he thinks of them without saying it out loud. The crowd had already made the same point. Sunderland were better after the restart and thought they had a route back when Wilson Isidor headed in a Xhaka free-kick 71 seconds into the half, but replays showed him offside and the goal was wiped out.
Trai Hume, Danso and Brian Brobbey all had chances of varying quality. None of them went in. The booing at the final whistle was less ferocious than at half-time, though that may have had as much to do with how many seats had already emptied as with the improvement.
The Premier League is the real problem
Sunderland are bottom of the Premier League and have won once all season, back in August. That is the context that makes a European defeat feel heavier than the table says it should. Le Bris has spent weeks insisting the performances are better than the results, and Thursday gave him forty-five minutes of evidence and forty-five minutes against.
Chelsea come to the Stadium of Light on Sunday. For a side this short of confidence, it is close to the worst possible fixture at the worst possible time, and for Le Bris it may be the one that decides whether he is still in the job when the international break ends.
Match facts: Sunderland 0-2 Dinamo Zagreb, Europa League, Stadium of Light. Luka Stojkovic volleyed the visitors in front on 22 minutes from 15 yards; Dion Beljo added the second 17 minutes later. Wilson Isidor had a header ruled out for offside 71 seconds into the second half. Stojkovic was named player of the match with a BBC user rating of 7.42. Sunderland host Chelsea on Sunday. Source: BBC Sport.
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