COVENTRY, England – Japanese attacker Tatsuhiro Sakamoto scored his first goal in the English Premier League on Saturday as promoted Coventry beat Sunderland 3-1 at home.
A bouncing loose ball dropped to Sakamoto at the edge of the box and the 30-year-old curled a first-time effort into the bottom left corner for the 17th-minute opener at Coventry Building Society Arena.
Deflected goals from Taiwo Awoniyi in the 37th minute and Jack Rudoni in the 52nd minute helped Coventry move out of the relegation zone, while bottom club Sunderland got a goal back through Enzo Le Fee’s 67th-minute penalty before they went a man down late on.
“It’s huge for me to finally get to contribute to the team’s win,” said Sakamoto, who joined from Belgian outfit Oostende in the summer of 2023. “It was bouncing in quite a tricky way and was a bit hard to hit it, but I’m happy (it went in).”
Trusted for his third straight start by manager and former Chelsea icon Frank Lampard, Sakamoto, who has two caps for Japan in June 2021, is eager to repay the faith and help the club stay in the world’s toughest league.
“I’ve always trained believing in myself for that moment. It’s really been a long road since becoming professional, but I’ve finally got here,” Sakamoto said after playing the entire Premier League game for the first time.
“I feel this is just the first step. I want to help the team secure survival before anything…I’m putting my life on the line each game to gain the manager’s trust and not to throw away the chance I seized.”
Aston Villa drew 1-1 at home with Fulham as goalkeeper Zion Suzuki, who had continued his strong form in the first half, dropped a corner kick inside his own goal for the visitor’s 64th-minute leveler.
In Germany, Keisuke Goto came off the bench to set up the equalizer as Freiburg secured a 2-1 comeback win at Augsburg.
The 62nd-minute substitute received a ball on the turn before threading a short pass for Igor Matanovic to steer home three minutes later, and Cyriaque Irie headed in the 85th-minute winner for the visitors.
In the Dutch Eredivisie, midfielder Kodai Sano got his second goal of the campaign in PSV Eindhoven’s 7-0 home rout of Willem II as they moved two points off leaders Feyenoord.
