Why always him: Liverpool Brendan Rodgers condemns Mario Balotelli for shirt swap[Photos+video]

And he wonders why it is always him. Just when you thought you had seen it all with Mario Balotelli, he takes the breath away on Anfield’s biggest European night in five years.

With Liverpool submerging at half-time, the evening having become an exercise in damage limitation rather than one to tell the grandchildren about as they trailed 3-0, Balotelli decided to swap shirts with Real Madrid defender Pepe as he sauntered off towards the dressing room.

Not clever. Not clever at all. Having endured a dismal, uncomfortable start to his time on Merseyside, Balotelli had a glorious chance to show why Brendan Rodgers took a £16million gamble on him in August and made him a Liverpool player.

Mario Balotelli swapped shirts with Real Madrid defender Pepe as he wandered down the tunnel at half-time

Balotelli endured another torrid night in a Liverpool shirt and was replaced at half-time at Anfield

Pepe and Balotelli leave the field with the Real Madrid defender putting his arm around the Liverpool forward

Real Madrid defender Alvaro Arbeloa (left) attempts to swap shirts with Steven Gerrard (right)

Gerrard pulls Arbeloa's shirt down as he tries to leave the pitch after Liverpool's 3-0 defeat at Anfield

Gerrard gestures that he would prefer to swap shirts with his former team-mate off the field

Arbeloa (left), with Gerrard's shirt he got in the tunnel after the match, and Luka Modric (centre) and Isco

Instead, after barely breaking into a canter and never threatening Madrid’s goal, Balotelli managed to enrage two former Liverpool captains - both of whom had lifted the European Cup - and seemingly lose the trust of his manager.

‘What is going on?’ said Phil Thompson, Liverpool skipper when they beat Real Madrid in the 1981 final in Paris, when learning of Balotelli’s faux pas. ‘Are you joking? Oh my goodness. What is in his mind to do that? He’s having a difficult time as it is.