LIVERPOOL BOSS BRENDAN Rodgers has backed Mario Balotelli and said the striker was right to take the winning penalty against Besiktas.
Balotelli sparked more headlines when his insistence on taking the 85th-minute spot kick upset Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge.
The Italian shrugged off his team-mates and coolly converted the penalty for a 1-0 win, but was called out afterwards by club captain Steven Gerrard for being disrespectful.
Rodgers played down the drama with a simple explanation for the confusion:
Steven and Mario are the top two penalty takers, but obviously neither of them were on the pitch at the start so you have to nominate someone.Jordan was nominated, but when we had a penalty Mario had come onto the field.
Jordan, being someone with responsibility and trust, gave the penalty to Mario so there was no issue.
There was a little bit of a kerfuffle around it because he wanted to make sure Mario was happy to take it but that was it really.
