Sunderland U21s 1-3 Borussia Dortmund: Four senior players make an unexpected start for Murty

Sunderland rue missed chances as they are beaten at the Stadium of Light in the International Premier Cup.

A double from Ousamane Diallo and a goal from Mathis Albert was only matched by a late Marcus Neill goal for Sunderland, giving Dortmund a valuable three points in Group D.

Coming off their 1-1 draw against Newcastle on the weekend, Graeme Murty had access to four main team players for the game, with Luke O’Nien, Chris Rigg, Lutsharek Geertruida and Dennis Cirkin are all named in the starting XI.

Despite Sunderland’s great start it was Dortmund who got the first goal, against the run of play. Geragusian tripped Diallo over leaving the referee to point to the spot. Taycan Etcibasi stepped up to take the penalty and slotted it past Adam Richardson into the bottom corner to take the lead in the 23rd minute.

Sunderland, now in the second half, held the majority of the ball while Dortmund sat back hoping to break forward quickly, which they did with Albert, who got the ball just into the Sunderland half all alone, he cut inside and shot from outside of the box brilliantly, into the bottom corner.

Dortmund extended their lead with Diallo within a matter of minutes. Richardson’s loose ball found Diallo in space inside the box and he calmly slotted the ball into the corner of the net just after the hour mark.

Richardson almost gave them a fourth, with 15 minutes to play as he passed it straight to substitute Marwan Mirza, however his shot was pushed wide by the keeper.

Sunderland’s possession finally found a goal with just over 5 minutes to play, after a brilliant piece of link up play on the right hand side allowed Walsh to drive the ball across goal.

His low cross found the foot of substitute Marcus Neill, who had only been on the pitch for a matter of minutes, and he passed it into the net from a yard out.

Sunderland U21s next play Wolves U21s on January 26th at 7:00 in the Premier League 2.