London, Aug 30 (ANI): Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has refused to blame ace striker Carlos Tevez after his mistake resulted in City losing 0-1 to Sunderland.

Tevez kicked the ball over the bar from just eight yards in front of an open goal with 15 minutes gone as City crashed to their first defeat of the season.

“We had this chance with Carlos, but we also had three or four others,” The Sun quoted Mancini, as saying.

“We had a situation where we should score - but this is football. If you don’t score a goal when you have these situations you can lose. Every game is difficult and you have to play to the last second,” he added.

Delighted Sunderland boss Steve Bruce could not believe his luck as Darren Bent cashed in on Tevez’s miss with an injury-time penalty.

Bruce said: “We rode our luck with the Tevez miss, it’s about time it went our way. I don’t think he’ll miss one like that ever again.” (ANI)