Sunderland travel to Portugal to face Torreense in the Europa League on Thursday night, and the fixture carries a neat symmetry. The club’s last competitive venture on European soil, 53 years ago, was the second leg of a European Cup Winners’ Cup second-round tie against Sporting in Lisbon, played when Sunderland were FA Cup holders and competing in the Second Division.
The parallel extends to their hosts. Torreense, a second-tier club, caused widespread surprise by beating Sporting in the Portuguese Cup final last season, and the reward was a place in the Europa League’s initial phase. Their chances of reaching next spring’s sudden-death rounds were boosted last month when they beat Lillestrom 2-1 in Norway. Domestically, however, they are struggling: Torreense sit 15th in LigaPro with six points from seven games.
They meet a Sunderland side that has made an underwhelming start to the Premier League campaign, featuring a single win, against fellow strugglers Fulham. With a visit to Bournemouth — eighth, a place and a point below Sunderland — to follow on Sunday, Régis Le Bris is expected to rotate his squad. Even so, it would be a minor shock if Sunderland failed to beat Torreense.
The match will not be played at Torreense’s own ground. The Estádio Manuel Marques in Torres Vedras, 31 miles north of Lisbon, holds 2,431 spectators, which means it does not meet Uefa capacity regulations. The game has therefore been switched to the medieval town of Leiria, an hour’s drive north of Torres Vedras and almost two hours from the luxury Logic hotel where Sunderland are basing themselves after failing to find suitable accommodation elsewhere.
Almost 4,000 Sunderland supporters are making the trip to the 23,888-capacity Estádio Dr Magalhães Pessoa, normally the home of second-tier União Leiria. With a limited supply of local hotel rooms, some are staying in Lisbon or Porto, while others have found lodgings in nearby towns and villages, including Fatima — a pilgrimage town and one of the most important shrines in the Catholic world, attracting more than six million tourists every year. Visitors from Wearside will sightsee in forecast bright sunshine and 25C, and may be tempted to pray for respite from a harsh north-east winter at the Stadium of Light.
On the pitch, Sunderland’s season has been shaped by a squad imbalance. Although they have played well at times, the failure to sign a specialist right-winger during the summer has led to Le Bris frequently fielding two natural right-backs in Trai Hume and Thomas Meunier. Hamstring injuries to Brian Brobbey and Dan Ballard have caused problems at both ends of the pitch, and the previously reliable Robin Roefs has suffered a few untypical goalkeeping wobbles.
Context matters, though. Sunderland’s first six league fixtures have been against the present top four — Manchester City, Arsenal, Brighton and Brentford. Even so, quiet concern will segue into downright panic should the next two domestic games, at Bournemouth and then at home to Leeds, fail to produce at least one win. There is also anxiety that Malick Fofana, the £30m left-winger signed from Lyon on deadline day who is struggling to displace the erratic Nilson Angulo, may be too lightweight for England’s top tier.
Off the field, Sunderland announced on Tuesday evening that their set-piece coach, James Brayne, had left and would be replaced by Thor Herdal. The 34-year-old arrives from Nordsjælland, where he was head of dead balls and analysis, and has also worked with Denmark’s national team.
With a trip to Poland to face Lech Poznan following next Thursday, minimising travel and the attendant fatigue has become a priority — which explains why Sunderland will fly straight from Lisbon to Bournemouth on Friday. Torreense, meanwhile, do not intend to merely make up the numbers. Back in the club’s home town, locals are preparing for an annual national day of celebration on 20 October, commemorating the role played by an imposing series of forts and military defences built in 1809-10, known as the Lines of Torres Vedras, in defending Lisbon from French invaders during the Peninsular war. Torreense are hoping to demonstrate similarly stout resistance against a team led by a Frenchman and staffed heavily by French-speaking players. Sunderland have reason to be wary of Stopira, Torreense’s influential 38-year-old captain and left-back, who played for Cape Verde at this summer’s World Cup, along with the gifted playmaker João Marques and Ghanaian striker Malik Abubakari. The challenge for Sunderland is to use this last blast of southern European warmth to revitalise a season in danger of unravelling.