When interviewed by Sky, Roberto Mancini talked about the expulsion of Felipe Melo and his consequent irritability: “During the match it happens that you get irritated, it’s part of the game. The second half had started well, better than the first, during which we were suffering and we attacked their space very little. In the second half, instead, we played rather well, some would say maybe you play better with ten men. Goals always help strikers, it happens to everyone that they go through tough moments but the attackers, as I have said, have to talk and help each other, Icardi must have tranquility and then he will score the goals, as we have seen.”

During the first half it was difficult to move the ball, the midfielders almost obstructed it, was it perhaps better in the second half better because they were fewer in midfield?
“We started slow in the first half and if you are not quick to catch the player between the lines it becomes difficult, we had no opportunities with the strikers and the midfielders being distant neighbors, in the second half we did much better. At first we had Perisic to the left and Brozovic to the right with Ljajic in the middle but the problem is not the individual but the lack of movement. In the second half we ran more, attacked spaces looking for the ball and made fewer mistakes. We came from a close game, we had Melo and Guarin one yellow card from suspension and I made choices.”

How did Banti expain his second yellow card to Melo?
“He said it was a tactical foul, he didn’t convince me but that’s normal. My expulsion? Nothing happened, not even he knows why he sent me off.”

Source: fcinternews.it