Coventry vs Sunderland 3-1

Coventry beat Sunderland 3-1 at the Coventry Building Society Arena after taking a 2-0 lead by half-time and adding a third early in the second half. Sunderland pulled one back from the spot, but never got closer.

Tatsuhiro Sakamoto opened the scoring in the 17th minute and Taiwo Awoniyi made it 2-0 on 37 minutes. Coventry went in at the break with that two-goal cushion.

Jack Rudoni restored the home side's breathing space on 52 minutes, finishing Victor Torp's assist for 3-0. Sunderland's response came in the 67th minute, when Enzo Le Fée converted a penalty after VAR had confirmed the decision against Reinildo Isnard Mandava in the 63rd minute. Sunderland made two changes on 57 minutes and two more on 75 minutes, while Coventry made two changes on 72 minutes and another on 83 minutes, with Torp one of the players withdrawn after assisting the third goal.

The numbers were not entirely one-sided. Sunderland had 57% of the ball and 439 passes to Coventry's 335, and they also had more shots, 17 to 12, but Coventry put four on target to Sunderland's two and matched them for corners at 4-4. Sunderland's xG was 1.74 and Coventry's was 0.79, while both sides had one save.

Victor Torp was booked in the 7th minute and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto in the 55th for Coventry. Sunderland's only booking came in stoppage time, when Omar Alderete was shown yellow on 90+4 minutes, and the visitors also had the red card listed in the statistics.