'SUPER' MARIO BALOTELLI IN LINE FOR ITALY RETURN - GALLIANI

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AC Milan were beaten 1-0 by Genoa on Sunday, but the former Manchester City striker put in a battling performance watched by Antonio Conte

"Super" Mario Balotelli is being considered for an Italy call-up following an upturn in form and attitude, AC Milan CEO Adriano Galliani has confirmed.

Azzurri head coach Antonio Conte was in the stands as Genoa defeated Milan 1-0 at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris on Sunday.

Balotelli delivered another encouraging display in the second half - having starred in their 3-2 win over Udinese on Tuesday - despite Milan being down to 10 men and Galliani lauded the 25-year-old for his improvements on and off the pitch.

"People should let Conte do his work and wait for the call-ups to be announced," Galliani told Premium Sport .

"Conte did speak to Mihajlovic, so we'll see what happens.

"Balotelli is behaving wonderfully and over the last month has been beyond reproach both on and off the pitch. It's true a month isn't enough to judge things, but Mario is being super in every way."

Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic has called on his players to show more passion to match their talents after Blerim Dzemaili's deflected free kick was enough for the home side to claim maximum points.

"The reality is that we do well for a time and unfortunately it's not enough," he told Sky .

"We made too many mistakes and lost too many individual battles, but we almost never gave up clear opportunities. Their goal came from a dead ball but we didn't suffer from then on. 

"We have to understand that, in these games, it's not enough for Milan to have better quality players. We have to have more heart than our opponents in order to bring out that quality.

"We'll analyse the defeat to find out what went well and then prepare ourselves for the match against Napoli, a strong team with many great forwards."