Andy Welsh heralded his players desire to dig in following their narrow victory over Benfica in the Premier League International Cup.
The Black Cats produced an exhilarating attack minded display at times as Joel Asoro rifled home the opener on 19 minutes.
Asoro skilfully worked his way into the box, leaving a host of Benfica bodies in his wake, before arrowing his strike across goal and into the bottom corner.
Sunderland continued to pile forward in the first period but were unable to force the issue as the visitors returned in the second half much improved and hit back when Heriberto Tavares tapped home from close range.
Welsh’s side fought back though and second-half substitute Luke Molyneux provided the magic touch as he slotted home George Honeyman’s miscued shot.
Speaking post-match Welsh shared his delight and admitted his side have laid down a marker for the rest of the season.
“We tried to stand up to them in the first half and we caught them out a little bit,” he said.
“Joel did great and scored with a super finish. We had a couple of other chances that we didn’t hit the net with but we played really well in the first half and caused Benfica a lot of problems.
“I was very happy at half-time but they increased the intensity after half-time. The Lads stuck in, dug deep, got into the slots and made sure they worked really hard.
“We won the game against the run of play but to be honest I thought it was deserved,” he continued. “I thought the Lads worked really hard and it was against a really difficult team.”