Sunderland Waited 53 Years for Europe — Xhaka Wants the Stadium on Fire
GOATIFYSunderland are back in European football after a 53-year wait, and captain Granit Xhaka does not want the occasion treated like a museum piece. The Black Cats open their Europa League league phase against AZ Alkmaar at the Stadium of Light with nearly 49,000 supporters expected and a squad that suddenly has to prove its remarkable rise can survive on two fronts.
Xhaka Wants Sunderland to Play Like They Belong Here
Sunderland are back on a European stage, and Granit Xhaka is treating the moment as something bigger than a ceremonial return. Fifty-three years after the club’s last competitive European campaign, the Black Cats open their Europa League league phase against AZ Alkmaar at the Stadium of Light with a crowd close to 49,000 expected and a captain who believes the occasion should feel intimidating.
Xhaka’s message is simple: Sunderland cannot spend the night admiring what they have achieved. The 33-year-old wants the team to play with aggression, energy and the kind of collective edge that carried them to seventh place in the Premier League last season. He has been to two Europa League finals before, with Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen, and his ambition is not merely to give Sunderland supporters a memorable home night. He has openly talked about dreaming of another final.
That matters because Sunderland’s return is not built around a squad learning Europe from scratch. Xhaka is joined by Nordi Mukiele, Reinildo, Omar Alderete, Noah Sadiki, Enzo Le Fée and Brian Brobbey among players with continental experience. Régis Le Bris therefore has a group capable of understanding how different European games can feel from Premier League weekends: slower at times, more tactical, but often brutally punishing when concentration drops.
The immediate challenge is substantial. AZ have started the Eredivisie season unbeaten, winning five of their first six league matches and scoring freely. Their young midfield talent, including Kees Smit, gives Sunderland a technical test in the areas where Xhaka normally controls tempo. The home side’s advantage is obvious, though. This is the first European night at the Stadium of Light in the club’s modern era, and the emotional temperature should be unlike an ordinary September fixture.
For Sunderland, the key will be turning that emotion into pressure without letting it become impatience. The club has waited more than half a century for this night. Xhaka wants the players to make sure they do not play like tourists once it arrives.
From Roker Park in 1973 to a European Night at the Stadium of Light
The distance between Sunderland’s two European eras is almost difficult to measure. Their previous adventure came in 1973-74 after the famous FA Cup final victory over Leeds United. Sunderland were then a Second Division club entering the Cup Winners’ Cup, playing at Roker Park in a very different financial and sporting world.
They eliminated Vasas of Budapest before losing narrowly on aggregate to Sporting in the next round. That short campaign became a historical curiosity for generations of supporters because there was never an immediate sequel. Decades passed, Roker Park gave way to the Stadium of Light, the club moved through Premier League highs, relegations and League One, and European football became something associated with other teams.
That is why this return carries more weight than a normal Europa League opener. Luke O’Nien provides perhaps the clearest human link to the scale of the rebuild. Five years ago he was playing League One football for Sunderland; now he is part of a squad preparing for European opposition. The change under majority owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has been dramatic, but qualification was not gifted by history or nostalgia. Sunderland earned seventh place last season, sealing it with a victory over Chelsea and turning a newly promoted club into a European qualifier almost immediately.
The new league-phase format also means this will not be a brief two-legged cameo. UEFA’s 2026-27 schedule gives every Europa League team eight league-phase opponents before the knockout rounds. Sunderland’s calendar includes a January trip to Anderlecht, while the wider schedule stretches through late January before the competition moves toward a final in Frankfurt in May.
That creates both opportunity and strain. Le Bris has to protect the Premier League campaign while learning how to rotate through European weeks. Sunderland’s defeat to Arsenal last weekend showed that domestic margins remain unforgiving. Four days after facing AZ, another major league assignment follows. The club wanted Europe; now the squad must prove it has the depth and maturity to live with it.
AZ Alkmaar Will Test Whether the Revival Is Ready for Europe
AZ are a fitting first opponent because they offer almost the opposite European profile. Sunderland arrive with enormous emotional momentum but little recent continental history. AZ arrive without the same Premier League resources or crowd, yet with a club structure accustomed to developing young talent and navigating European competition.
The Dutch side’s domestic start makes the danger clear. AZ are unbeaten through their opening Eredivisie matches and have been productive in attack. Their 2025-26 season ended with a KNVB Cup triumph, and their current group blends experienced midfielders such as Jordy Clasie with emerging players including Smit. That combination can punish a team that presses too recklessly.
Sunderland’s recent home form gives them a reason to be confident. Before the Arsenal defeat, they had put together a strong sequence at the Stadium of Light, and even against the league leaders they created enough to make the game uncomfortable. Enzo Le Fée’s missed penalty was a reminder that the 2-0 scoreline did not tell the whole story. A similar level of intensity against AZ, with better execution in the decisive moments, could make Wearside a difficult place for European visitors.
Xhaka is central to that balance. His job is not simply to inspire the crowd or make tackles. Sunderland need him to regulate the game when the first wave of adrenaline fades, help the side escape AZ’s pressure and recognize when the match needs control rather than another sprint. His previous Europa League runs give him a perspective few teammates can match.
There is also a larger question hanging over Sunderland’s season: is qualification the peak of the revival, or the beginning of something sustainable? One European night cannot answer it. But a convincing performance would show that the club’s rapid rise has produced more than a great story. It would suggest Sunderland can compete in two demanding environments without losing the identity that brought them here.
The supporters have spent decades waiting to see their club back in Europe. Xhaka has spent enough time in the competition to know that history does not win matches. The best version of Sunderland on Wednesday night will need both things at once: the emotion of a 53-year wait and the composure of a team that expects to belong.
