Mancini baffled by Kompany red

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini says he is perplexed by the sending off of Vincent Kompany against Manchester United.

The City captain received his marching orders for a challenge on Nani in his side’s 3-2 defeat at Etihad Stadium, resulting in a four-match ban as it was his second red card of the season.

The Football Association dismissed Kompany’s appeal against the sending off on Tuesday.

“I watched three or four players in the Premier League last week do tackles worse than Vinnie, and with the same referee,” Mancini told reporters.

“He did nothing, no yellow card, nothing.”

“In 30 years I have never seen a sending off for a tackle like this. I can’t understand it. Vinnie took the ball, he did nothing.”

“If there was danger then Nani, who was the player nearest the ball, probably would have said something about this, especially to the referee. But he didn’t say anything.”

“It’s strange because in England the referee makes incredible decisions. Sometimes, they send off for nothing.”

“This is strange, I don’t understand.”

Mancini has been mired in controversy in the past few weeks, firstly by appearing to try and get Martin Skrtel sent off for fouling Yaya Toure and then criticising Wayne Rooney for appealing to referee Chris Foy before Kompany’s red card.

But the City boss has defended his actions.

Mancini said: “Yeah, I did it. All the people were saying, ‘Apologise, apologise, because in England we don’t do this’, so I apologised.”

“But this is normal because, five minutes before, there was a red card for Gareth Barry for nothing.”

“In Italy, it’s normal (to do this). We’re different.”