Mancini: we didn’t deserve to lose

EMBATTLED Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini does not believe his side deserved to be on the end of a third successive defeat against unfancied Europa League opponents Lech Poznan.

The Polish side had the better of the first half and went in 1-0 up thanks to Dimitrije Injac’s 30th-minute volley before a much-changed City side rallied to equalise through Emmanuel Adebayor five minutes into the second period.

That goal looked likely to provide some good news following back-to-back defeats against Arsenal and Wolves, but a freak goal from Manuel Arboleda and a glorious Mateusz Mozdzen effort saw the hosts steal the points in the final five minutes.

The result, if not the two-goal margin, was probably fair but Mancini, who has found his position put under serious scrutiny in the last week, disagreed.

“I’m disappointed because we don’t deserve to lose this game,” said the Italian. At the moment everything is against us, we are very unlucky. We played a good game and we had a lot of chances to win but we must continue to work.

“We lost the last three games but that is football, sometimes you play well, you deserve to score but you don’t.”

The likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Wayne Bridge and Joleon Lescott were recalled for the match but failed to impress against a team who have struggled in the lower reaches of the Polish league this season.

Mancini had several key players missing – including captain Carlos Tevez, who returned to Manchester from his sabbatical in Argentina yesterday – but declared himself content with his side’s efforts.

Mancini added: “I’m disappointed to lose but I’m happy because we played a good game. It is important we keep going.

“Tonight we were missing 10 players that were at home. We have 20 good players but sometimes you can lose a game you do not deserve to lose.”

LECH POZNAN: Buric, Kikut, Bosacki, Arboleda, Henriquez, Peszko (Wilk 73), Injac (Kielb 52), Djurdjevic, Krivets, Stilic (Mozdzen 62), Rudnevs.

MAN CITY: Given, Zabaleta, Richards, Boyata, Lescott, Adam Johnson, Vieira, Bridge (Kolarov 70), Wright-Phillips (Silva 46), Milner (Kompany 78), Adebayor.

Referee: Pieter Vink (Holland).