Sunderland vs Brighton 0-2

Brighton left Sunderland with a 2-0 win, settled by Maxim De Cuyper’s opener on 53 minutes and Jaouen Hadjam’s stoppage-time finish. Brighton then had to see out the final half-hour with 10 men after Pascal Struijk was sent off.

The first half ended goalless. Sunderland made their only change before the break on 34 minutes, when Thomas Meunier was replaced by Malick Fofana. Brighton’s Olivier Boscagli was booked on 36 minutes, and the interval came at 0-0.

De Cuyper put Brighton ahead on 53 minutes from Pascal Groß’s assist. Three minutes later, VAR confirmed a card upgrade for Pascal Struijk and he was shown a red card on 57 minutes, leaving Brighton to protect their lead a man down. They made two changes on 68 minutes, with Boscagli and De Cuyper replaced by Costinha and Malick Yalcouyé, while Sunderland made two changes on 73 minutes and another on 81 minutes as they chased an equaliser. Brighton’s second change window came on 88 minutes, when Diego Gomez and Yasin Ayari were replaced by Jaouen Hadjam and Georginio Rutter, and both were involved in the late second goal. Hadjam, who came on in the 88th minute, scored in the third minute of stoppage time from Rutter’s assist to make it 2-0.

Sunderland had 62% of the possession and 495 passes to Brighton’s 304, but Brighton had more shots on target, 4-3, and a higher xG at 1.14 to 0.68. Sunderland also had more shots, 13-12, and more corners, 7-5, while Brighton stayed level in the main contest by limiting Sunderland to three efforts on target and recording three saves of their own.

Brighton collected one yellow card, for Olivier Boscagli in the 36th minute, and one red card, for Pascal Struijk in the 57th minute. Sunderland had no bookings.