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Sunderland welcome Nottingham Forest to the Stadium of Light in the Premier League.
Last time out Sunderland lost at Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest beat Burnley.
Sunderland lost 4-3 to a last gasp Villa goal after coming back from 3-1 down to level at 3-3.
Ollie Watkins had needed just two minutes to open the scoring for the hosts when he headed in John McGinn's cross from close range at the back post, although Sunderland soon equalised through teenager Chris Rigg's curling effort into the far corner.
Watkins restored Villa's lead with another header, this time converting Ian Maatsen's cutback in the 36th minute.
And just after the restart the 30-year-old played in Morgan Rogers, who easily beat Sunderland keeper Robin Roefs with a low finish.
Villa seemed to be cruising towards a trouble-free win but Jadon Sancho gave the ball away to Trai Hume, who curled in a strike from a tight angle in the 86th minute.
Sancho then gave the ball away again allowing Wilson Isidor to go clean through and get Sunderland back level with a low finish.
The visitors even had the chance to win it seconds before Abraham's goal when Habib Diarra had a one-on-one chance saved by Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez, while team-mate Chemsdine Talbi would have had an open goal if he had passed.
Ballard could return to the starting eleven and Angulo could be on the bench.
Forest recovered from being a goal down to crush Burnley 4-1 with Morgan Gibbs-White scoring a second-half hat-trick. The hosts, who lost defender Murillo to injury, needed to come from behind after Zian Flemming fired in Hartman's low cross in first-half stoppage time.
Forest were poor in the first half but two Gibbs-White goals in seven minutes turned the game before the 26-year-old completed his first career hat-trick, looping in a header from Ryan Yates' cross with 13 minutes left.
Substitute Jesus then made it 4-1 when he ran clean through in stoppage time and found the corner.
Murillo is unlikely to feature after limping off with a hamstring injury.
Regis le Bris:
"We will have a conversation, because we always talk during the week after a game to understand what happened, his feeling, my feeling, and we can compare to go further," Le Bris said.
"So this situation will be important, obviously, because it's a key moment, and he had the opportunity, it was in the right timing to run behind, but he didn't probably make the right decision at the end, and the goalkeeper is a good goalkeeper as well. So we will learn, I repeat, from this experience."
Presser Thursday 13:30:
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Vitor Pereira:
“I cannot suffer with the other teams. I say to them: ‘we are in the command of our life because we don't need to look for the opponents. We don't need to look because we are in a position that we can, we just depend on us. Go there and prove again your qualities. Prove again, forget the fatigue, forget everything’.
“But in the end, the reality was difficult. The first half was difficult. It was difficult because we didn't find the proper spaces. The pace with the ball was not the pace to create problems and they were very comfortable. The opponents were very comfortable in the game.
“We didn't create a chance to score and in the end of the first half, they scored a goal from nothing.
“The next one is the most important, because it's the next one that we have a chance to get points again.”
Form:
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Match Appointments:
Referee: DARREN ENGLAND
Assistant Referee: Scott Ledger
Assistant Referee: Akil Howson
Fourth Official: Paul Tierney
Video Assistant Referee: Timothy Wood
Additional Video Assistant Referee: Peter Bankes
Team Lineups:
Sunderland AFC: Roefs, Mukiele, Ballard, Alderete, Reinildo, Sadiki, Xhaka, Le Fee, Rigg, Diarra, Brobbey.
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Subs: Ellborg, O’Nien, Cirkin, Hume, Geertruida, Talbi, Angulo, Mayenda, Isidor.
Injured: Mundle, Traore, Jocelyn.
Nottingham Forest FC: Sels, Aina. Milenkovic, Cunha, Williams, Anderson, Sangare, Hutchinson, Gibbs-White, Bakwa, Wood.
Substitutes: Ortega, Awoniyi, Dominguez, Jesus. McAtee, Netz, Morato, Yates.
Injured: Murillo, Victor, Hudson-Odoi, Boly, Ndoye.
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Betting Odds:
Sunderland 17/10 Forest 13/8 Draw 21/10
My two pence:
A great game against Villa but slightly soured by the last few minutes of added time. Hopefully we can bounce back from that result against a Forest team fighting for their Premiership lives.
Forest were booed off at half-time against Burnley and their goalkeeper, Sels looked poor to me, a few early strikes on goal could set the scene. We do need to keep Gibbs-White and Anderson under control though.
Hope to see a few in the Fans Museum before the game
I’m going for a 3-1 home win.
Live Stream:
Sky Sports Premier League
Ha’way the Lads
