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Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini blamed his side's poor finishing for their 1-0 defeat at Sunderland.
Emmanuel
Adebayor, Yaya Toure and - most spectacularly - Carlos Tevez were all
guilty of misses before Darren Bent hit a late penalty for the Black
Cats. "Football is very strange. We played fantastic football in the first half but if you don't score, sometimes you can lose these games," said Mancini. "We had the Carlos chance, but we also had three or four other opportunities." City's Italian manager cut a frustrated figure on the touchline during the second half of the match at the Stadium of Light, as the home side outmuscled their more illustrious opponents before Bent's injury-time strike. The visitors had created several openings in the first half, not least when star striker Tevez skied an open goal from 12 yards in an early candidate for miss of the season. "I am disappointed because we wanted to win this game," added Mancini. "We were good in the first half but in the second half we defended too deep and they put us under a lot of pressure. Every game is difficult and you must play until the last second." Meanwhile, Mancini's Sunderland counterpart Steve Bruce was delighted by the way his team bounced back from last weekend's loss to West Brom. 
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Bruce keen to repeat strong performance
"Today every one of them stuck at it and did their jobs properly. Of course, we rode our luck a little bit with the Tevez miss - I don't think he will ever miss a chance like that again - but we are due some." Bruce also revealed he wants to recruit more players before Tuesday's transfer deadline, especially in light of a serious injury to striker Fraizer Campbell. "It looks as if he has damaged his knee ligaments. We hope it's not as serious as we fear, but it doesn't look good," stated Bruce. "With that, it's imperative that we try to bring a body in because we are a bit short there if he is going to be missing for the next couple of months." | |
