SOCCER:ROBERTO MANCINI has accused Liverpool's players of deliberately trying to "provoke" a red card from Mario Balotelli during the 1-1 draw at Anfield that ended with the home club checking reports of damage in the away dressingroom and counter-allegations from Kenny Dalglish that the striker had only himself to blame.

Mancini’s annoyance with Balotelli was evident as they clashed on the touchline, leading to a heated exchange after the match. But Mancini’s anger also extended to the Liverpool players, alleging they had pressured the referee, Martin Atkinson, to show Balotelli a second yellow card for an aerial challenge on Martin Skrtel.

“I don’t think it was a yellow card and I don’t think the referee thought it was a yellow card,” he said. “My impression was the referee gave a free-kick but didn’t want to give a yellow. Then the Liverpool players went over saying: ‘Yellow card, yellow card’. This is not correct. I’m disappointed with Mario because the first booking (a foul on Glen Johnson) was a yellow card but not the second. Mario has to pay attention because there are many players who will try to provoke him.” Asked if he meant Skrtel had exaggerated the challenge, he replied: “I think so.”

Balotelli, a second-half substitute, had been on the pitch 18 minutes and there were reports afterwards that a door in the City dressing room had been damaged. “If he damaged the door, he will pay for it, just like his house,” Mancini said, referring to the recent fire at Balotelli’s mansion, caused by a firework being let off in a bathroom. City, however, later reported there was no damage.

Informed of Mancini’s comments, Dalglish made little attempt to conceal his displeasure. “Balotelli got himself sent off. His reaction spoke louder than anyone else’s. Sometimes he doesn’t help himself. Other times he maybe doesn’t get as much leeway as somebody else. But if you help yourself, you don’t get yourself in that position in the first place.”

The draw leaves City five points clear of Manchester United but Balotelli will be suspended from the League Cup quarter-final at Arsenal tomorrow, and it was an undignified end to a day that began with Dalglish paying an emotional tribute to Gary Speed and Craig Bellamy being given compassionate leave because he was so devastated about the death of the Wales manager.

Both sides included highly mobile miniature ball-manipulators – Luis Suarez and Dirk Kuyt for the home team, Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri and David Silva for the visitors – with the result that there was no shortage of fluid movement. But this was a game that cried out for the introduction of the big men, and eventually it got three of them, with highly contrasting results.

One of those big men was Balotelli, who was sent off in the 83rd minute, 18 minutes after his arrival as a substitute for Nasri. His first contribution, six minutes after his arrival, was as comical as his latest haircut, a blond stripe with shaved patterns running fore and aft. When Aguero swept the ball across the pitch to meet Balotelli’s run down the left, Skrtel, responded by falling over, leaving the Italian a clear passage to goal. In the split-second before the ball arrived, however, Balotelli himself also tripped over and landed in a tangle of his own limbs.

For the next five minutes he did nothing except shoot baleful glances at all and sundry, until the fateful moment when he tracked Johnson’s advance down the left flank of City’s defence and tugged the full-back round by the upper arm as he was running on to Lucas Leiva’s pass. A yellow card was followed by an inswinging Adam free-kick and chaos in the City area before Joe Hart secured the ball.

Back into his sulk went Balotelli, until Skrtel rose to challenge for a looping ball just outside the Liverpool penalty area and the Italian ran across to obstruct him with his arm thrust across the defender’s face. Down went Skrtel, up went Martin Atkinson’s hand – first with a second yellow, then with a red – and off went Balotelli.

City’s second big man, replacing Aguero just before Balotelli’s departure, was Edin Dzeko, whose impact was negligible. Then Dalglish introduced his strapping centre-forward, and Andy Carroll came close to snatching all three points when he met Johnson’s chip from the right with a powerful header that forced Hart into a superb save.