Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris makes honest Leeds United admission with Whites declaration and warning
Two key automatic promotion contenders collide on Monday night when Sunderland visit Leeds.
Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris has made an honest Leeds United admission with a Whites declaration but warning ahead of Monday night’s huge Championship showdown at Elland Road.
Fourth-placed Sunderland ensured they kept within seven points of Championship frontrunners Leeds with Wednesday night’s 2-0 win at home to Luton Town and Monday night’s trip to Leeds now presents a chance for the Black Cats to make further inroads on Daniel Farke’s Whites.
Leeds looked destined to take a 2-1 victory from October’s reverse fixture at the Stadium of Light until a huge error from keeper Illan Meslier gifted the hosts a bizarre equaliser and ultimately a 2-2 draw.
Despite going behind to an early Chris Rigg opener, Leeds dominated large periods of the game and Le Bris admits the Whites are probably the best team his side have faced so far.
The Sunderland boss has declared Leeds as “very impressive” - yet with a warning that his own team were capable of improving further against the best sides.
"A very good team,” said Le Bris of Leeds at his pre-match press conference.
“Strong momentum and it will be an exciting challenge. And it's still three points to play for. For us it's a really good challenge to test our limits and I think we can improve our level against the best opponents and it will be a very interesting challenge for us, sure."
Pressed on a general feeling that Leeds were the best team Sunderland have played on the back of the 2-2 draw at The Stadium of Light - and whether he would agree with that, Le Bris admitted: “Yeah probably. We started well against Leeds at home but after that we struggled to press and we had a long period in a 5-4-1 at the beginning of the game and then we changed our structure to manage the problem and I think we were good in the first part of the game and during the second half as well.
"But they have many vertical threats and they are very impressive when they have space to exploit, they were able to counter-attack and to score the second goal.”