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It is my fault Manchester City lost Europa League clash against Sporting Lisbon, admits Roberto Mancini
Roberto Mancini claimed his mistake in underestimating Sporting Lisbon led to Manchester City’s Europa League exit at the hands of the Portuguese outfit.
Despite fighting from 2-0 down on the night to seal a 3-2 second-leg victory against Ricardo Sa Pinto’s team, City were eliminated at the last 16 stage on away goals following a 1-0 defeat in Lisbon last week.
And having insisted a 1-0 Premier League defeat at Everton in January was due to his mistakes, Mancini accepted the blame once again as City were left with only the league title to play following Sporting’s surprise aggregate success.
"I'm proud of the performance, but disappointed that we didn’t deserve to go through." Mancini said. "I am the manager. It is not the player’s fault, it is my fault. I made a mistake, for this reason I am sorry.
"I made a mistake in the first game. After beating Porto in the last round, we maybe thought Sporting would be easy, but in football it is never easy. Football, every game is difficult, especially in Champions League and Europa League, because every team tries to win. Some games, we can make a mistake.
"The manager is always the person who prepares the game and maybe I made some mistakes."
The silver lining for City could be the avoidance of a draining commitment to the competition with title rivals Manchester United no longer burdened by involvement in the Europa League.
And Mancini joked: "We were envious of United because they lost and we wanted to lose this game!
"But really, it will now be a good fight until the end of the season because we have only the Premier League to focus on.
"We can put all of our strength into this and I think that will be good. We were top for seven months and now are one point behind, so we can still win the league.
"We have four important players missing and that is not good, but if we have the same spirit as in second half tonight, we can win the game against Chelsea next week."
City goalkeeper Joe Hart admitted he believed had had won the game with an injury-time header from Nigel de Jong’s cross.
Hart said: "I thought it was in. It didn’t need to get to that but football is football. It is drama, and for the fans it was fantastic in the second half, but we didn’t show up in the first half. I hope we can take some positivity out of the second half."

Manchester City are reportedly eyeing 29-year-old Ivory Coast defensive midfielder Jean-Jacques Gosso, who currently plays for Turkish club Orduspor.
http://www.insidefutbol.com/2012/03/15/ ... der/59638/

Roberto Mancini wants to win the title for the fan caught on camera looking like he was crying after the Blues’ defeat at Swansea.
But the City boss has warned the supporters – and his players – that now is not the time for any show of grief.
“We were very disappointed for our supporters after Swansea because I saw on the TV one of our supporters crying,” said Mancini, ahead of tonight’s Europa League tie with Sporting Lisbon.
“For this guy, and all the supporters, we want to change things.”
The defeat at Swansea, three days after they lost the first leg of their Europa League tie in Portugal puts the Blues a point behind rivals United with 10 games to play.
But Mancini says it now needs stout hearts to turn the situation around again.
“We lost both games but we can’t cry,” he said. “Now is the time to be strong and keep going because we’re a top team and we have time to recover. We can’t cry because we’re one point behind United
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... crying-fan

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OTHER BOLLOX
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Fulham have opened talks with playmaker Moussa Dembele in attempt to prevent interest from Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal. Daily Mail

Newcastle midfielder Danny Guthrie has revealed that talks over a new deal will be left until the summer, although it is believed Aston Villa are keen to sign him. Newcastle Chronicle

Bolton must wait for Fifa to sanction a deal for Scotland Under-21 left-winger Gregg Wylde, who had his contract cancelled at Rangers following the Glasgow club's financial problems. Daily Mirror

Meanwhile former Gers manager Graeme Souness could make a surprise return to Ibrox in either a coaching or boardroom role if his friend Brian Kennedy is able to buy the club. Metro

Veteran Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has revealed his desire to stay at Stamford Bridge "for as long as possible". Evening Standard

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Port Vale administrator Bob Young says more departures cannot be ruled out after agreeing a £50,000 loan deal for Lee Collins to join Barnsley. Stoke Sentinel

Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers has insisted there will be no complacency this season, despite the club's apparent safety in 11th place in the current Premier League table. "Nobody will be easing off because they think the job is done - not while I'm at this club," he says. South Wales Evening Post

Former Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has returned to the club's training ground following a short break in America and was invited to lunch by his replacement Terry Connor. Daily Mail

Chelsea coach Eddie Newton believes the Champions League victory over Napoli will restore pride in the club and silence critics. talkShite

But the Blues could be facing a congested Easter fixture list if they draw with Leicester in the FA Cup this weekend, with a possible four matches within seven or eight days.

Swansea are 14 points away from the relegation zone Daily Mirror

Carlos Cuellar has dedicated his Aston Villa comeback to his Twitter followers. Birmingham Mail

Tomas Rosicky has revealed he turned down big money offers from Russia and China to sign a new deal with Arsenal. The Sun

QPR midfielder Joey Barton has again taken to Twitter to rebuke squatters who have allegedly entered the house he is currently having renovated. Metro

Nice wag but had to turn off when she said ' hi to everyone who reads the daily star' at that point I knew she was speaking to someone else

Cheers Chinners.