Sterling will only improve – Pellegrini

Raheem Sterling had a dramatic start to his Manchester City career with a quick goal, a blatant penalty denied, and some exciting link play with the excellent David Silva. “We are very pleased with the players we have brought in”, he said.

Balotelli infamously flopped in his first season at Liverpool, and his messages about former teammate Sterling didn’t win him many friends in the Twittersphere of Reds fans, according to The Telegraph and ESPN.

ESPN FC’s Steve Nichol has nothing good to say about Balotelli’s tweets in defence of Raheem Sterling, but Craig Burley disagrees.

One chance, one goal, you can’t argue with that.

Sterling reportedly left Liverpool because of his sour relationship with manager Brendan Rodgers.

“He has the speed that we don’t have… Keep it up”, the Italian wrote.

Sterling quickly controlled the pass, opened up his body and calmly slotted the ball past Roma goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis.

Roma equaliSed five minutes later when Miralem Pjanic scored with a powerful strike from outside the box at the end of a deft combination involving Daniele De Rossi, Francesco Totti and Gervinho.

Balotelli, who had a hard first season at Liverpool, later attempted to clarify his remarks after receiving some abusive replies. “He demonstrated not only his value as a player, he’s also a very young player so he will improve a lot in future playing with Yaya (Toure), playing with David Silva … so I’m very happy with him and very happy for our team to buy him”.

Of course we’re not going to support him, considering the disrespect he’s continually showed the club throughout the entire calendar year. He gave everything to this club and respect it so i’m sad to see this.

“I think for a striker it’s always important to score, especially when he scored early in the game”, he said. “YNWA, Liverpool is a family ALWAYS”.

The worldwide Champions Cup has come to life after Manchester City defeated AS Roma in a nail-biting penalty shootout, following a highly entertaining affair which ended at 2-2 after normal time.

Former Lazio player Aleksander Kolarov blasted a penalty over the bar but Doumbia’s chipped penalty was saved by Joe Hart.