Pride for Regis Le Bris as Sunderland seal European place
By Rebecca Johnson, Press Association
Regis Le Bris expressed his pride as Sunderland secured a spot in next season’s Europa League by beating Chelsea 2-1.
Trai Hume opened the scoring before Malo Gusto’s own goal early in the second half doubled the Black Cats’ advantage.
Cole Palmer pulled one back for Chelsea but they had Wesley Fofana sent off just after the hour mark and Sunderland held on for the three points.
Victory at the Stadium of Light along with other results ensured the Black Cats finished seventh in the Premier League standings, capping off a remarkable return to the top flight.
Asked about his emotions, Le Bris said: “Proud. I’m proud of the lads, proud of the atmosphere in the stadium, the connection we had once again today to create something special.
“We had to win. I think we were really focused.
“The way we wanted to play this game, showed good control, scored when it was on and finally the last part of the game was well-managed with maturity.”
Victory comes one year to the day since Sunderland were promoted with a Championship play-off final triumph over Sheffield United at Wembley and Le Bris believes a strong finish this term is the “continuity” of their journey.
“It’s different, Wembley was fantastic as well, a special place in English football,” he said.
“Here today, it’s the continuity of our journey and the journey is really special because we feel the alignment in the club with our fans and finally it’s a tribute to our collective work and it’s really nice.”
Looking ahead to the prospect of playing in the Europa League, Le Bris added: “It’s hard to realise at the minute.
“It’s going to be a new challenge, but we don’t want to set a limit.
“We know it’s going to be tough in the Premier League, first of all, because the second season is hard as well.
“Let’s start with this idea to be strong in the Premier League. After that we’ll have the Europa League which is another challenge, another story, we’ll see.”
Calum McFarlane believes Chelsea should be finishing “a lot higher up”.
Defeat on Wearside ended a flat campaign for the Blues, who had started the day in eighth but slipped to 10th.
The game was McFarlane’s last before Xabi Alonso takes over on July 1 and he said: “A disappointing end to the season.
“We should be finishing a lot higher up the league – for me, with this group of players, the talent we have, we should be in the Champions League.
“We haven’t been, we’ve been too inconsistent at times this year.
“The feeling in the dressing room is obviously of disappointment. We wanted to win today and make the best of a bad situation and get into the Europa League.
“We didn’t get the performance we wanted or the result. The message to the fans, we’re as disappointed as them, we’re gutted we couldn’t do it for them.
“They’ve been brilliant this year, they’ve really supported us, especially in the last couple of weeks when we’ve needed to win games.
“Unfortunately we’ve let them down today, we weren’t able to put the performance in that they deserve.”
