Gerrard: Henderson should have taken penalty

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard accused team mate Mario Balotelli of showing disrespect after the Italian found himself at the centre of controversy despite scoring a winning penalty against Besiktas last night.

Balotelli stroked the ball home in the 85th minute to secure a 1-0 win at Anfield but only after wrestling the ball off stand-in skipper and designated penalty-taker Jordan Henderson.

The two exchanged heated words before Balotelli fired home and Gerrard, injured and working as a TV pundit, was not amused.

"Jordan should have taken the penalty. Rules are rules. It should have been Henderson. Mario has been a bit mischievous," he told ITV Sport.

"Credit to Mario, he's scored, but it's not nice to see when footballers are arguing. I think Jordan has handled the situation very well.

"I wanted the penalty, Mario felt confident and he has taken big penalties before" - Jordan Henderson

"He can see that Mario really wanted to score. Jordan walked away at the right moment and handled his post-match interview very well.

"Jordan is the captain and Mario showed Jordan a bit of disrespect there, but he's scored a very important goal.

"I think six or seven players would have wanted to take that penalty so if they all say they are taking it, what happens then? Rules are in place for a reason."

Balotelli, a regular penalty-taker at his previous clubs, had only been on the pitch for 22 minutes.

After the goal, Balotelli sought out Henderson in what appeared to be an effort to make amends, while the England midfielder sought to play down the incident in his post-match interview.

"I wanted the penalty, Mario felt confident and he has taken big penalties before," he said.

"Everyone wants to take them. I felt confident in Mario, he has taken big penalties before and he got the nod."

Balotelli, a £16million summer signing from AC Milan, played down the controversy, writing on Instagram: "Thank you Hendo for let me take the penalty. Stop drama now. We won that's what it counts. We are a team and especially we are Liverpool. Come on guys."

Manager Brendan Rodgers refused to be drawn into the row post-match, but is sure to face a series of questions about it and Balotelli later on Friday when he holds a press conference to preview Sunday's trip to top-four rivals Southampton.

Defender Martin Skrtel said the players were focused on winning and were not concerned by the fuss which followed the incident.

"The main thing is we scored," said the Slovakia international. "It doesn't matter who scored the penalty, we scored it and won the game.

"It was key that we won and it's a good thing that we didn't concede.

"We knew before that they were a good team. They are leading the league in Turkey."

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