Liverpool's Mario Balotelli calls for penalty drama to stop after he took spot-kick from captain Jordan Henderson

 

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Controversy: Balotelli seemed to snatch the ball from Henderson before dispataching the penalty
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Standard Sport20 February 2015

Mario Balotelli called for the drama to be stopped after he snatched the ball from Jordan Henderson before scoring Liverpool's winner from the penalty spot on Thursday evening.

The Italy international appeared to take the ball from stand-in captain Henderson after Jordon Ibe was brought down inside the box in the closing stages at Anfield.

Balotelli stepped up to hand Brendan Rodgers's side a slender advantage going into the second leg in Istanbul next week, but designated penalty-taker Henderson looked disgruntled.

Injured club captain Steven Gerrard - who was undertaking punditry duties in the ITV studio - criticised Balotelli for showing a lack of respect.

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Henderson admitted after the game he was keen to take the spot-kick but remained professional and told reporters he had confidence his team-mate would do the job.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">Thank you hendo for let me take the penalty.. Stop drama now. We won that's what it count. We are a… <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&amp;id=222025&amp;p=http://t.co/aUtsFglN6g" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-95451-http://t.co/aUtsFglN6g" data-vars-event-id="c23">http://t.co/aUtsFglN6g</a>— Mario Balotelli (@FinallyMario) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/FinallyMario/status/568542851526750210" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-95451-https://twitter.com/FinallyMario/status/568542851526750210" data-vars-event-id="c23">February 19, 2015</a>

Balotelli called for the incident not to be allowed to be blown out of proportion and thanked Henderson for agreeing to step aside.

He later posted on Twitter: "Thank you hendo for let me take the penalty.. Stop drama now. We won that's what it count. We are a team and expecially (sic) we are Liverpool. Come on guys."

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