Mario Balotelli on the spot to give Liverpool narrow lead

Liverpool 1 Besiktas 0: Substitute Mario Balotelli continued his penchant for late interventions with an 85th-minute penalty to give Liverpool a slender advantage to take to Istanbul in the last 32 of the Europa League.

Nine days ago he came off the bench at Anfield to score a crucial winner against Tottenham and did the same against Besiktas, this time at the Kop end after taking the ball away from team-mates Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge to take the spot-kick. His goal makes the trip to Turkey next week less uncomfortable than it was looking, although the tie is far from over and they were defeated on their last visit there in the Champions League in 2007.

Yet Besiktas almost took a first-half lead, with Vasil Kevlak heading narrowly over from Jose Sosa’s corner before Simon Mignolet threw himself low to his left to deny Demba Ba after he out-paced Martin Skrtel on the counter-attack.