Balotelli shattered Timişoara's dream » Respect Poli!

City's Galaxy were unrecognizable for more than an hour in front of an unleashed Timişoara, but Balotelli destroyed all hope their hope with his goal.

You simply cannot compare these teams. When you have in front of you a team from the English Premier League that invested in just one summer more than 160 million euros, 4 times what Poli spent in the last 5 years, you can't really be entusiasthic.

With 25.000 fans behind them, Timişoara played an excellent game with the "citizens". Poli suffered in the attack were the they were betrayed by their finishing. Sepsi and Curtean tried to find a gap in Mancini's defense, but with no result. Bourceanu was close to score the goal of his career, but he just managed to hit Toure (19). Petrovici moved the attacks on the right side, but Contra was simply a catapult for balls sent in City's penalty area.

Timişoara held it's head up high after the break too, when Mancini started to send in his stars. Zabaleta was close in the 47th minute, and Yaya Toure hit the post with a violent shot minutes later. Balotelli managed to finally score when he tapped the ball into the net from just two meters, after a good pass from Adebayor. Poli did well in front of a team that collects stars.

Poli requested two penalties
Timişoara asked for two penalties with City. First, in the 14th minute, Alexandru Curtean was "hooked" by Zabaleta. The replays showed that a contact existed, but the referee was fooled by Curtean's spectacular dive and let the game go on. In the final moments of the game Zabaleta pushed Zicu in the penalty area, but again the referee didn't give a penalty.