Sunderland will face AC Milan at the San Siro after being paired with the Italian giants in the Europa League draw. The Black Cats are in European competition for the first time since playing in the 1973-74 Cup Winners' Cup, with the Milan game the stand-out occasion for the club and supporters.
Their other away games are at Anderlecht, Lech Poznan and Portuguese second-tier club Torreense. AZ Alkmaar, Dinamo Zagreb, Jagiellonia and Levski Sofia will all visit the Stadium of Light.
Le Bris: 'Our main focus right now is Fulham'
Head coach Regis Le Bris said: “We are proud to be in Sunderland. Our fans deserve to be in this position. It’s a huge experience, but we want to be competitive. It is challenging, exciting, demanding - at the same time, our main focus right now is Fulham.”
The Black Cats face the Cottagers at the Stadium of Light tomorrow, their first home game of the season after a defeat at Ipswich last weekend.
Team news and injury updates
New left back Dayann Mathalie is not available through suspension. The £26m recruit from Toulouse signed last Friday, but has a one-game ban carried over from the end of last season in France for collecting five yellow cards - something Sunderland officials only became aware of this week.
Another new recruit, Jules Ahoka, could be in line for his debut after his transfer from Royal Antwerp. Nordi Mukiele and Omar Alderete are in contention to start, after being injured in pre-season.
“Nordi is so important for us, it was a shame to get this injury just at the last minute of our US tour,” Le Bris said.
“It broke his dynamic because he started really well this pre-season with high standards and he was really impressive on his right side, but Thomas (Meunier) did well so we had a good replacement.
“Nordi is ready but with three weeks less in this journey so he will be available this weekend.
“Omar had a different programme because of the World Cup and an early injury as well in the World Cup so he will be available as well, but you saw against Ipswich, he's not at his best right now which is normal in this time.”
Learning from the Ipswich defeat
After defeat at Portman Road, following a couple of slack moments defensively in possession, the Frenchman added: “It's always difficult in that kind of game at the beginning of the season to find the right balance and taking risks, trying to disorganise a bit the shape and balance the opponent and being ready to manage turnovers so we made a few mistakes and they punished us in transition.
“On the other hand we delivered 19 crosses but connected only with two or three so we were not dangerous enough so it's a tough balance - we knew that before and we learned from the experience to move forward.
“The feeling is the same… we want to keep this underdog mentality because you always have to earn something and in the Premier League first of all the games are so demanding, so tight as well because details make the difference.
“We have to keep this mentality to get better every day and to earn things, especially at home. I told you probably from day one that we need to deserve the atmosphere in the stadium, it starts from us and if we are Sunderland with our togetherness, our hard work, our clarity in our game model then our fans are behind us and we want to rebuild this fortress we built last season.”
The Europa League has a 36-team league-phase format, with each club playing eight matches - four home and four away.
Dates and kick-off times will be confirmed by UEFA no later than tomorrow and the league phase begins on 16-17 September, with further games taking place in October, November, December and January.
Europa League dates, with fixture confirmation to follow: Matchday 1: 16/17 September; Matchday 2: 15 October; Matchday 3: 22 October; Matchday 4: 5 November; Matchday 5: 26 November; Matchday 6: 10 December; Matchday 7: 21 January; Matchday 8: 28 January.
