Balotelli on revenge mission at AC Milan
Mario Balotelli is back among the goals with Milan and desperate to prove his critics wrong after a difficult season at Liverpool.
Mario Balotelli feels he is slowly starting to silence his doubters after getting back among the goals in AC Milan's 3-2 win over Udinese on Tuesday.
The Italy international was the subject of plenty of negative headlines in 2014-15, as he failed to make an impact at Liverpool after joining the club from the San Siro side.
After a hugely disappointing spell in the Premier League, he returned to Serie A on a one-year loan deal this close-season, and is now determined to prove his critics wrong.
"I am slowly getting my revenge," Balotelli told Sky Sport Italia after opening the scoring against Udinese with a free-kick.
"Everybody in England and Italy has done nothing but criticising Mario Balotelli in recent years.
"But I worked hard for the team again, like I always do. It was a tough game, because my opponents were out to provoke me."
Balotelli was booked in the 15th minute for a challenge on Ali Adnan, and he insisted that he could have been even more effective had it not been for that mark against his name.
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"I think the referee's decision to give me a yellow card was not fair," he added. "It ruined my game a bit, because I had to hold back."
Milan were 3-0 up at half-time following goals from Balotelli, Giacomo Bonaventura and Cristian Zapata, but Udinese nearly salvaged a draw after the break as they dominated proceedings in the second half.
Goals from Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu and Duvan Zapata gave the hosts a lifeline but they could not complete the comeback, with their hopes finally ended when Bruno Fernandes was sent off in injury time for a second booking.
"We were winning 3-0, but then we got careless," Balotelli reflected. "We should not have let them get back in the game. We are a group of fighters, though.
"We conceded two silly goals, but we won. It was a complicated game, but an important result."