AS Roma ace Daniele de Rossi believes Manchester City ace Mario Balotelli is showing greater maturity for Italy at the Euros.

Balotelli made headlines for his angry goal celebration against the Republic of Ireland.

"We he can do well and the important thing is for Italy to put England under pressure, regardless of whether it's him or someone else," noted De Rossi.

"Mario can hurt any team and what counts is scoring goals. Is he an outsider in the group? I doubt that, though there are always some who are more in the thick of things. He looks fine to me, but at his age it's normal that he should start to take responsibility and be treated like the others. He's becoming a man now.

"At his age I went to the World Cup and elbowed someone... it was an incident that made me grow up."