Balotelli stars in Milan friendly win

Milan striker Mario Balotelli had a hand in all three goals on his return to the club, featuring heavily in a 3-2 win at Lega Pro outfit Mantova.

The Italy international played the full friendly at the Stadio Danilo Martelli and will have been one of few to impress coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, who stated afterwards that some of his side “showed why they are reserves”.

Balotelli, who arrived back at San Siro on a season-long loan from Liverpool last week, was an unused substitute in Milan’s 2-1 victory against Empoli at the weekend, but made a quick impact on Thursday, scoring three minutes in.

His curled long-range effort was quickly cancelled out by goals from Giuseppe Ungaro and Andrea Trainotti, but Balotelli supplied the assist for Andrea Poli to level shortly before the break.

And Balotelli was then brought down for a penalty three minutes after the hour, allowing Luiz Adriano to slot home the winner from the spot.

The 25-year-old will hope to have done enough to feature in the Milan derby against former club Inter after the international break.