Mario Balotelli grabbed a late winner for Liverpool against Besiktas at Anfield in the first leg of their Europa League last 32 clash.
With less than 10 minutes remaining, Jordon Ibe skipped down the right hand side and burst into the box, where he was clumsily bundled over by Ramon Motta.
In the absence of habitual penalty taker Steven Gerrard, there was some confusion over who would take the penalty, but no doubt in Balotelli’s own mind as he grabbed the ball authoritatively and placed it on the spot.
Daniel Sturridge was not happy while skipper Jordan Henderson didn’t look too happy either, but Balotelli ignored them and stepped up to tuck away a cool penalty.
Liverpool were the better side in what was a largely uneventful contest, with Ibe putting in a particularly lively display.
Yet the clearest chance of the game fell to Demba Ba, back at Anfield for the first time since he capitalised on Gerrard’s slip to crush Liverpool’s title bid last season.
As Olcay Sahan played him through in the first half, in front of The Kop, it looked spookily like that moment in April, but this time Simon Mignolet got down well to save.
Liverpool take a slim lead and an important clean sheet into the second leg in Turkey next Thursday.