Balotelli: ‘I wasn’t scared!’

Mario Balotelli insists he didn’t bottle taking a penalty for Nice – “it was to help a teammate”.

The Italian striker is Les Aiglons’ regular penalty taker, but Alassane Plea stepped up in the loss to Marseille last night and missed, on the way to a 4-2 defeat.

“Don’t tell me I was scared to shoot a penalty!” Balotelli wrote on Instagram.

“I shoot penalty more difficult than this [sic]! My action was to help a teammate in a bad night rise again…

“Seriously, who ever tell me [sic] I was scared means he never saw me play football… idiot.

“Issa Nissa always, not only when we win, thank you.”