Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has claimed that he was not surprised by his side's 1-0 defeat to Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.

Despite a number of chances for City, Xandao's second-half goal was enough to give the home side the win in Portugal.

"This result was not a surprise, anything can happen in football," said Mancini. "I do not think we deserved to lose. We did not play well, we had chances to score, but we didn't.

"We have bigger chances to go through. It will be a different game in Manchester. When we have chances to score, we will score.

"We did not underestimate them. Every game is difficult and different, we tried to play good football, sometimes we can, sometimes we can't. We did not underestimate them. Football is strange. We have another game and we have more chances to win the next game."

City host Sporting in the second leg on Thursday, March 15.