Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has blasted Mario Balotelli as being disrespectful, after the Italian striker took the ball off Jordan Henderson to score a penalty against Besiktas, according to reports from the Guardian.

Balotelli scored an 85th minute spot-kick to give the Reds a 1-0 advantage ahead of next week’s Europa League second-leg clash against their Turkish opponents, but the game was marred by an argument between Henderson, Balotelli, and Daniel Sturridge over who would take the winning effort.

And while Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers refused to comment on the incident or confirm if Henderson was the designated taker, club skipper Steven Gerrard, who was an ITV pundit due to a hamstring injury, believed that Balotelli showed disrespect to the stand-in Reds captain.

“Jordan should have taken the penalty,” Gerrard said. “Rules are rules. It should have been Henderson. Mario has been a bit mischievous.

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“Credit to Mario, he’s scored,” he added. “But it’s not nice to see when footballers are arguing. I think Jordan has handled the situation very well. 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.”

Jordan Henderson, however, did not slam his team-mate for stealing the penalty, claiming that he knew Balotelli was feeling confident and getting the winning goal was much more important than being the goalscorer.

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

“It was a great penalty in the end. It’s a big goal for us.”

Liverpool will travel to Southampton in this weekend’s Premier League fixture, with the Saints sitting in fourth place, four points above the Reds.

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