Mancini impressed by City show

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini was impressed by his side’s 2-1 victory over Porto in the Europa League on Thursday.

City went behind in the first half after a Silvestre Varela strike, but an own goal from Alvaro Pereira and a Sergio Aguero winner late on handed the visitors the advantage ahead of next week’s second leg in Manchester.

“I think that we played a good game,” Mancini told ITV Sport. “We played very well. Also in the first half we had three or four chances to score.”

“We were really unlucky, but in the second half we played very well.”

“Second half maybe we stayed higher and played better, but we had seven or eight chances to score in this game.”

“We didn’t leave any chances to Porto. I think this is important because Porto is a top team.”

It had been claimed City striker Mario Balotelli was subjected to racist taunts from the Porto crown, but Mancini insisted that he did not hear the alleged abuse.

“I didn’t hear any, sorry. I didn’t hear,” the Italian manager said.