Sunderland captain breaks silence on Leeds United's post-match celebrations after players clash — YEP 18/2/25
By Kyle Newbould
The Sunderland midfielder clashed with a few Leeds United
players following the full-time whistle.
Sunderland captain Dan Neil insists the passionate nature of
Leeds United’s post-match celebrations were compliment to the job his side did
despite defeat on Monday.
Leeds came from 1-0 down to win 2-1 as Elland Road played
host to another incredible night under the lights, with substitute Pascal
Struijk an unlikely hero. The Dutch defender came off the bench to twice head
home an enticing cross from Joe Rothwell, the latter coming deep into
added-time.
That second effort sparked wild scenes that continued as the
full-time whistle went, with on-pitch celebrations threatening to boil over as
Largie Ramazani appeared to goad the heartbroken Neil. Both sets of players
briefly clashed before going their separate ways and the Sunderland captain
took a philosophical view of the drama.
“I think if you look at Sheffield United away, if you look
at Burnley away when we drew, and if you look at tonight, I think we've got to
take that as a massive compliment as a squad because we're in every single game
this season, especially the big ones,” Neil told the Sunderland Echo when asked
about Leeds’ celebrations at the end.
“Being on maybe the wrong side of especially the away
results against the big teams, but I think the performances have deserved a
lot, lot more. Like I said, we've got to take the positives from it and look at
what we need to work on. 15 massive games coming up, there's still going to be
twists and turns in the league. We know what the Championship is like, so we've
got to treat every single game like a cup final at the end of the season.”
Sunderland looked set to inflict a first home defeat since
September on Leeds, with Wilson Isidor’s excellent individual opener the only
goal of the game until Struijk’s 78th-minute equaliser. The Black Cats conceded
possession to their hosts but defended brilliantly for large parts, reducing
the whites to very little particularly in the first-half.
But Leeds continued to probe, with momentum building
throughout the second half as cracks started to show in the Sunderland defence.
Midfielder Neil spent much of the final 20 minutes defending his own box and
admitted the ‘chaos’ of Elland Road kept pinning his side back.
“It's a really hard one to take,” Neil said after his side’s
defeat. “There's been a few this year where we've conceded late, which is no
secret, so we're really disappointed with that. But I thought, analysing the
game as a whole, I thought the first half we were really good, I thought we
were the better team by a mile, I thought we controlled the ball out of
possession really well.