There is a pleasing symmetry about Sunderland’s Europa League trip to Portugal to face Torreense on Thursday night. 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 for the FA Cup holders, then in the Second Division.
In a striking parallel, second-tier Torreense prompted widespread surprise by beating Sporting in the Portuguese Cup final last season. The reward was a place in the Europa League’s initial phase and their chances of reaching next spring’s sudden-death rounds were boosted when they beat Lillestrom 2-1 in Norway last month.
Torreense are struggling in LigaPro, where they sit 15th with six points from seven games. They face a side who have made an underwhelming opening to the Premier League campaign featuring one win, against their fellow strugglers Fulham.
With a visit to Bournemouth, who are 18th, a place and a point below Sunderland, on Sunday, Régis Le Bris is expected to rotate his squad. Even so, it would be a minor shock if Sunderland fail to beat Torreense.
Torreense’s home ground, the Estádio Manuel Marques in Torres Vedras, 31 miles north of Lisbon, holds 2,431 spectators, dictating it does not meet Uefa capacity regulations. This has prompted the match being switched to the medieval town of Leiria, an hour’s drive north of Torres Vedras and almost two hours from the luxury Lisbon hotel where Sunderland are basing themselves after failing to find suitable accommodation elsewhere.
Almost 4,000 Sunderland fans are travelling 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. Very much a pilgrimage town, Fatima is one of the most important shrines in the Catholic world and attracts more than six million tourists every year. As visitors from Wearside sightsee in forecast bright sunshine and 25C, they may be tempted to pray for respite from a harsh north-east winter at the Stadium of Light.
Although Sunderland have played well at times this season, the failure to sign a specialist right-winger during the summer has led to Régis 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 is required though. Sunderland’s first six league fixtures have been against the present top four – Manchester City, Arsenal, Brighton and Brentford. Nonetheless, 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.
On Tuesday evening, Sunderland announced 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. He has also worked with Denmark’s national team.
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Given that Sunderland also travel to Poland to face Lech Poznan next Thursday, minimising travel and the attendant fatigue has become a priority. It explains why they will fly straight from Lisbon to Bournemouth on Friday.
Not that Torreense 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. It commemorates the role played by an imposing series of forts and military defences built in 1809-10 and 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, and their 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.
