Vincent Kompany praised 'fantastic' Sunderland after the Black Cats gave his Burnley side a scare at the Stadium of Light. The Wearsiders went in at half-time with a two-goal lead - thanks to strikes from Amad Diallo and Dan Neil - after outplaying the promotion favourites, with ex-Manchester City defender Kompany saying he 'hated everything' about his side's first half performance.
But Burnley came roaring back in the second half with a display Kompany described as 'relentless', levelling things up by the hour mark and then going on to win 4-2. The Belgian was complimentary about Sunderland, however, and gave Tony Mowbray's men great credit for the way they have coped while missing key players through injury.
"In all fairness, Sunderland were fantastic," said Kompany. "They have a lot of injuries, they are going through a period where they are having to find solutions to problems and they did ever so well.
READ MORE: Sunderland's first half against Burnley showed they can compete against anyone, says Tony Mowbray
"Whatever the manager said before the game, it worked out much better than what we said and what we did. It was a tough game.
"I'm not going to say that we got away with it because the performance in the second half was too good to say that, but we all know that this could have been a really poor day and it would have been our own doing - well, not just our own doing, Sunderland were really good and we just weren't at it. The lesson is that one, you never give up, and two, that if you drop your standards you are bang average. It's as simple as that."
Burnley's performance swung from one extreme to the other, and Kompany said they cannot allow a repeat of that first-half. He said: "Pretty much every lesson we need to have about football was in this game.
"I hated everything about the first half - how we turned up, the intensity, the challenges. And it starts with the intensity and the challenges, the running. You can have a bad day, but the basics weren't there.
"Then, in the second half, it's everything I love about the game. It just shows that if you keep going, it's that energy, you get your wingers in positions where they go at it and they are not coming back. A game of two halves is a good statement."
Kompany let rip at his players at half-time, and it worked. "When your basics go, I don't think you need to mess about," he said.
"I can move as many magnets as I want on the tactics board but it's pointless if we are not doing the basics right. In fairness to the lads, I don't think we have sat here too many times questioning intensity and energy. This is the first time.
"When your basics are right, you focus on details. But if your basics aren't right, unless someone has figured out another way, you just tell them how it is. Again, credit to the guys. I didn't see a dressing room with the heads down - it's not like that.
"I can accept a defeat and I can accept a team being better than us. In this league, that is the way it is and fair play to Sunderland, in the first half they were really good. But it has to be more of a fight. It has to be more contested."
Kompany also made a change at half-time, bringing on Manuel Benson in place of striker Ashley Barnes and that played a major part in changing the course of the game, with the winger scoring Burnley's second goal and providing two assists. Kompany said: "I could have taken off every player [at half-time].
"It wasn't really that complicated. It was more about getting Benny [Benson] on the pitch than changing someone out. I wanted Benny on the pitch. In the second half, it was relentless and I'm really happy about that."
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