Mario Balotelli to the award. On 28 December, Balotelli scored his first Premier League hat-trick in a 4–0 win over Aston Villa. Despite this success, Balotelli still had disciplinary problems, and in March 2011, he was sent off in the second leg of Manchester City's Europa League draw with Dynamo Kyiv. On 14 May, Balotelli was named man of the match in the 2011 FA Cup Final as Manchester City defeated Stoke City 1–0 to win their first trophy in 35 years. Balotelli scored his first goal of the 2011–12 campaign in a 2–0 League Cup win against Birmingham City. He followed
Mario Balotelli League Group I match against Krasnodar in an eventual 5–2 away defeat. That was his first goal in a UEFA club competition since February 2015, when he scored for Liverpool against Beşiktaş in the round of 32 of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League knockout phase. On 2 October, Balotelli scored the winning goal in the 86th minute by sending a powerful kick from the edge of the box into the top right corner as Nice defeated Lorient 2–1 in a home Ligue 1 match, during which he received a yellow card for taking off his shirt in celebration of his