"?Italy international striker Mario Balotelli has courted controversy again by expressing a belief that the England sides he has played against in the past have not been 'top teams', describing the feeling of facing them as different than against an opposition like Germany.
"I don't know the national team of England. I know the strikers - they're very good. But, to be honest, I don't know how England are going to play," Balotelli told Goal.com when asked for his thoughts on the Three Lions this summer.
Left out of the current Italy squad, the forgotten Liverpool forward then drew on his own experience of facing England at major international tournaments in the past. And it's clear he didn't rate them.
"I've played against England twice - in the Euro and in the World Cup," Balotelli went on to say.
"Both of the teams (2012 and 2014) were very tough and strong, with big players. But I never felt that we were going to lose the game. I always felt we'd win, even if maybe they were stronger (better).
"When you play with a top team, you feel inside you when you might lose, but I never had that sensation against England."
The 25-year-old, who was part of UEFA's Team of the Tournament at Euro 2012, then compared his perceptions of England to Germany at that competition - Italy beat the Germans in the semi-final, with Balotelli scoring both goals.
"We won, but I felt like [Germany] could have scored whenever," he said of that game.
"When I played against Germany, in my head, I just thought about giving my best, because even my best might not have been enough to win that game. We won, but it was a different sensation from [beating] England."
Having only faced a tired older England generation, would Balotelli feel differently if he were to play against the much younger, new-look England currently at Euro 2016?
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