Manchester City Vs. Stoke City, 2011 FA Cup Final: Robert Huth Gets Away With Elbow To Mario Balotelli’s Face

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a Rory Delap long throw! The Republic of Ireland midfielder has the ball in his hands for the first time in the match about 15 yards from the halfway line, and he hurls it into the penalty area - Manchester City just about deal with it, but a quite brilliant crunching tackle by Andy Wilkinson earns them another one, which finds Jermaine Pennant only for the winger to overhit a cross.

And now Mario Balotelli is down in the Stoke penalty area, well away from the ball. It turns out he's down for good reason as well, because Robert Huth has just given him a helfty whack to the nose with his elbow for no apparent reason. It's a good thing for Huth that none of the officials saw that - it's a straight red card if there ever was one otherwise. 'Why did he do that?', the commentators wonder. Mostly because he could get away with it and Balotelli is easy to wind up, one would suspect.