Sunderland’s Xhaka focused on strong finish after Man United draw

Sunderland’s Xhaka focused on strong finish after Man United draw

Granit Xhaka admitted there was a mixture of pride and frustration after Sunderland were held to a goalless draw by Manchester United.

The Black Cats produced an impressive display against Michael Carrick’s Red Devils, but failed to find the breakthrough despite enjoying periods of dominance.

With the result, Sunderland’s dreams of qualifying for Europe have ended, but the former Arsenal star says the club’s ambition is to end the season strongly.

"We did nearly a perfect game, created so many chances against a team who is very good, with and without the ball ... if you have so many, you need to score one for sure. It's a point, we thought we had them, good momentum in the first half, it's part of the process, we have to keep working and believing in ourselves,” Xhaka told the media per Premier League website.

"We have 48 points, just got promoted, we're playing an amazing season, of course when you're playing this, the demand is high, we know what we can do to improve, we have to stay humble and calm because we are getting there.”

Despite Sunderland’s impressive position in the table, Xhaka claimed European qualification was never the target.

"We are not thinking about Europe, our mindset was game-by-game and that hasn’t changed even after 36 games, we want to finish the season as good as possible. We go now to Everton, then Chelsea, let's get a lot of points,” he continued.

"We want to finish with good feeling, we had a period where everything was not good but we came back, had a good mentality, if you want to survive in the Premier League, you need that. One eye is disappointment, the other eye, we can be proud of ourselves."