‘Stupid’ Balotelli responsible for crashing of Man City’s Europa League dream
March 18th, 2011 - 4:28 pm ICT by ANILondon, Mar 18 (ANI): Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has said that ’stupid’ Mario Balotelli is responsible for the crashing of his team’s Europa League dream.
Balotelli was given a red card in the 36th minute for an outrageous chest-high challenge on Dinamo Kiev’s Goran Popov.
It made City’s task difficult to overcome 2-0 in the first leg deficit in Ukraine. And although they pulled one back through Aleksandar Kolarov, City could not turn the last-16 tie around, The Sun reports.
Mancini said: “It’s a problem because Mario can be a fantastic player. But when he does stupid things like tonight it’s difficult for me, for him and the team. Am I angry? What do you think?”
“I didn’t see the foul but I’m disappointed because this was a difficult game and you can’t have a stupid red card like this. It was tough but if it had been 11 v 11 we would have scored two or three goals,” he said.
“With one player less and two goals down it became very difficult. But the other 10 were fantastic for 60 minutes. Is he a frustrated man? I hope so because with 11 we would have gone into the quarter-finals,” Mancini added.
Mancini hinted he may axe Balotelli from his squad for Sunday’s showdown at Chelsea. (ANI)
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Tags: 60 minutes, axe, balotelli, city boss, dinamo kiev, game, goran, league dream, london, man city, manchester city, mario, quarter finals, roberto mancini, stupid things, sun reports, ukraine