Mario Balotelli fell ill last night as off-colour Manchester City's Euro hopes got a kick in the guts from Andriy Shevchenko.
Balotelli suffered an allergic reaction to the Dynamo Kiev grass when his face swelled up and he missed the start of the second half to have a couple of injections.
City considered giving him an adrenalin shot when the anti-histamine failed to reduce the swelling.
Roberto Mancini sent assistant David Platt to fetch him when he failed to appear after half-time and the striker tried to play on before being forced to come off.
Mancini said: 「He had an allergy. I don't know what. His face was swollen, I don't know why.
「He wanted to come out for the second half, but he had this problem 10 seconds before coming out for the second half.
「I came out one minute before the players and I didn't see Mario. Then I was told Mario had an allergy and after he came out and said 『I can play' but his face was swollen.」
Balotelli's allergic reaction put the seal on a miserable night for City and Mancini was unhappy with their defending as former Chelsea flop Shevchenko opened the scoring.
「We made two mistakes for the goals and you can't make mistakes in games like this,」 said the City boss.
「We didn't mark well for the first goal, the second goal the same. We were four or five metres from the opponent. When you mark in the box you should be near.
「Kiev are a good team, but the right result could have been 2-1. They were stupid goals. We had control of the game. They played on the counter, so I'm frustrated.
「I think that 2-0 is not a good result, but I think that we have a chance to do this and in Eastlands it will be a different game.
「Tonight we played a good game. The difference was the two goals we conceded. Usually we don't concede goals like this, we are more professional. Tonight we conceded two stupid goals.
「I think that we had some problems and I hope that it can improve with the strikers for the return match. If the strikers improve and the defenders pay attention maybe we have a chance to go through.
「Dynamo Kiev were more fresh than us tonight and we have been playing every three days.」
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Mario-Balotelli-was-left-feeling-sick-last-night-as-Andriy-Shevchenko-and-Dinamo-Kiev-gave-Manchester-City-Euro-hopes-a-kick-in-the-guts-article712751.html
