Italy replaced Sweden at the top of Group A with victory over the host nation despite having Mario Balotelli sent off.

Balotelli opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, when he latched onto Sebastian Giovinco's pass and dinked around the defence before curling the ball past the outstretched arm of Johan Dahlin from just outside the area.

The Inter Milan striker, who has had disciplinary problems before, went from hero to villain 15 minutes later when he was harshly red-carded for a tame kick at Sweden's Pontus Wernbloom after the pair had got in a tangle.

Sweden had come from behind to win their past three matches and it seemed as if they were in with a good chance of repeating that with their numerical advantage.

However, Robert Acquafresca doubled Italy's lead when he headed Giovinco's free-kick into the bottom left corner from the edge of the six-yard box in the 53rd minute.

There was a nervy finale for the Azzurri when Ola Toivonen pulled one back for the hosts right at the death, but they held out for the three minutes of stoppage-time to move to top spot in the European Under-21 Championship group, a point above Sweden.