Sunderland 1-3 Fulham: Black Cats suffer third successive Premier League defeat

Sunderland fell victim to a second-half collapse at the Stadium of Light, which saw them lose their second home game of the season in the Premier League.

Raul Jimenez’s brace and Alex Iwobi’s strike was enough to beat Sunderland, who pulled one back through Enzo Le Fee’s penalty.

Sunderland were hoping to bounce back in the league following a narrow defeat to Liverpool at the Stadium of Light which was also the first defeat of the season at home.

The Black Cats struggled to challenge the Fulham goal in a first half that saw both Nordi Mukiele and Jocelin Ta Bi forced off with injuries.

The hosts threatened early on in the second half, as Geertruida won the ball high up the pitch before playing Mundle in one-on-one with Leno, but his shot was agonisingly wide.

Only a couple minutes later, Fulham should have scored themselves with Harry Wilson’s cut-back found Jimenez and his pass found Iwobi in space; yet the shot was goalbound but cleared by Trai Hume.

From the corner, Fulham got their goal, as Iwobi’s cross found Jimenez unmarked and he headed it past Robin Roefs.

Shortly after the goal, Fulham were awarded a penalty, when Brian Brobbey was alleged to have pulled back Calvin Bassey in the penalty area with Jimenez stepping up to slot the ball into the bottom corner.

Sunderland should have halved Fulham’s advantage with 20 minutes still to play, when Brobbey played Nilson Angulo one-on-one with Leno but his shot went over.

Following the miss, RLB made a wholesale of changes and the momentum swung back in the home side’s favour.

Dan Ballard was able to shield the ball from players inside the box, before turning his man which led to him being tripped and the referee awarded a penalty. Le Fee stepped up to take the spot-kick – smashing it into the top corner.

Substitute Wilson Isidor almost levelled the game a minute later from Mayenda’s cross, but his effort was over the bar.

Despite Sunderland’s pressure, Fulham regained the two-goal advantage when a quick counter-attack saw them three-on-three, with Wilson playing it into Iwobi, who was able to knock it past the onrushing Roefs into the goal from a tight angle.

Sunderland next play Bournemouth on Saturday 28th February at 12:30.