PREVIEW | Sunderland vs Coventry City - team news, lineups, predictions

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·11 de maio de 2025

PREVIEW | Sunderland vs Coventry City - team news, lineups, predictions

Sunderland and Coventry City clash this Tuesday at the Stadium of Light in the second-leg of their EFL Championship play-off semi-final. The match will be broadcast live at 20:00 on Sky Sports Main Event.

The Black Cats entered the first leg in the Midlands on the back of five straight league defeats, but found form at the right time to pull out a 1-2 win over Frank Lampard's Sky Blues.

Vídeos OneFootball

The two sides will now slug it out on Tyneside with a place in the Championship play-off final at Wembley on the line.

The Fan Zone

Graham Falk (WTF Sunderland Podcast): And so here it is, the date with destiny, the dance with death and an opportunity to push Sunderland closer to the dream.

It's been a long old decade to be a Sunderland fan. Lower than we have ever been in 100+ years of history, victory against Wycombe Wanderers at Wembley brought unbridled joy, but more than a hint of relief that Sunderland may just be on the comeback trail.

Fast forward three years, and 180 minutes (or more) stand in the way of Sunderland's return to the big time, and a chance to erase all the difficult memories of the past decade.

But we mustn't get ahead of ourselves, if anyone can overturn a first leg deficit against us - it's this lot. Let's make sure they don't and grasp the opportunity with both hands. Raise the roof, wear your colours, cheer every throw in, celebrate every tackle. Haway the Lads.

Prediction: 2-0

Ross Cooper (SkyBlues Extra): Well, the second leg is upon us and from a Coventry City point of view there is perhaps not the ideal scoreline to have heading into our trip to the Stadium of Light.

Although on reflection; I'm not sure what would be ideal other than a 3 or 4 nil lead!

The manner of the defeat was galling; in a game that we never deserved to lose, an individual mistake has handed the initiative to Sunderland.

I think for us it makes knowing how to approach the game simpler. We need to win in 90 mins. Simple as that. There's nothing for us as fans or Lampard to overthink, which would have been the case heading there with a lead. That isn't too say heading there with this 2-1 deficit is ideal, but I think it makes it easy for us in terms of knowing we simply need to win on the night.

Are we capable? More than. We need to find more end product, and undoubtedly need to cut out mistakes. We need a flawless performance.

We don't need to go gung ho from minute one, but some pressure and a goal instantly levels the tie and would throw some serious doubt Sunderland's way.

We need Haji Wright to perform, he was nowhere near the level in the first leg and we need him to be on it. Sakamoto and Rudoni can cause problems and Mason-Clarke could come in on the left to provide some extra dynamism.

Ellis Simms is an option, aerially he is capable of scoring goals and there wouldn't be a better time than on Tuesday night.

We have to quieten down the crowd. Make them edgy and be ruthless in their box.