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Balotelli caught swapping shirts at half-time

Mario Balotelli is in the news for all the wrong reasons ... again © Getty Images

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With Liverpool trailing Real Madrid 3-0 at half-time on what was billed as a vintage night of Champions League football at Anfield, manager Brendan Rodgers will have been desperate to see some fight in his players' eyes as they filed into the dressing room.

Instead, out-of-form striker Mario Balotelli appeared without his Liverpool shirt after taking that of Real's Portuguese defender Pepe.

Television cameras caught the striker swapping shirts with his opponent as the pair walked into the tunnel - a move which is unlikely to endear the Italian to the Anfield faithful.

While none of his Liverpool team-mates covered themselves in glory during a woeful first-half, Balotelli was particularly dreadful. At one point he pulled the ball out of the sky only to pass to precisely no one and was repeatedly seen sauntering around on the halfway line as Real reigned down shots on his team-mates in defence.

Lo and behold, Balotelli did not appear for the second-half. Keen to stop the rot - for Liverpool have never conceded more than three goals at home in the Champions League - Rodgers hauled him off for the hard-working Adam Lallana. Apparently, it was a tactical decision.

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