After their impressive win against Sporting on Sunday, Roy Keane's much-changed side weathered a lot of first half pressure to comfortably take the sting out of th Portuguese team.

Darren Ward was under pressure in the opening stages, tipping over an awkward centre by Aly Cissokho.

From the resulting corner, Bruno Moraes was left totally unmarked to side-foot a volley past the exposed Black Cats keeper.

Ward was beaten all ends up again when Auri appeared to not get a touch to a free kick that bounced into the net but the Wales keeper was rescued by the assistant referee's flag.

Sunderland were fortunate again when Bruno Gama unleashed a marvellous strike that smacked against the angle of bar and post with Ward clutching at thin air.

Ward did manage to block a Morais shot and cleverly kick away when grounded as the Porto loanee threatened before Michael Chopra finally mustered a decent attempt for Sunderland.

The Black Cats equalised out of the bluewhen Rade Prica missed a header from a corner, but Richardson drilled home with the aid of a sizeable deflection off Cissokho just before half time.

Dwight Yorke's stay on the pitch was brief after the veteran substitute was left grounded inside the box with Anthony Stokes replacing the Trinidad & Tobago veteran.

Despite the promptings of Leandro Lima, it was Sunderland who came closest to winning it after the break with Bruno Vale pushing away a Phil Bardsley strike and Stokes snatching at one effort before flicking a Daryl Murphy header against the bar.

Ward made up for his shaky first-half display with a late stop from Bruno Severino while Dean Whitehead was booked for lashing the ball against an opponent and substituted as a precaution for Graham Kavanagh, who had already been replaced himself at the break.