Kolo: Balotelli will feed off Swans strike

With the Reds trailing 1-0 to the Swans heading into the final stages of the Capital One Cup tie, Balotelli was introduced as a late substitute by Brendan Rodgers in an attempt to rescue the contest.

Within moments, the 24-year-old had made his first, claiming a second goal for the club by turning home a precise centre by Fabio Borini to make it 1-1 with four minutes remaining.

Buoyed by the leveller, Liverpool went on to book their place in the quarter-final draw without the need for extra time as Dejan Lovren towered home a stoppage-time header to clinch victory.

Now Toure believes Balotelli can build upon his strike over the coming weeks and become a regular name upon the scoresheet.

"For strikers, goals are like food," he told the Liverpool Echo. "Mario needs to feed himself by scoring goals. Now he's got that one he will do that now, definitely.

"Getting that goal will be fantastic for his confidence. He is a great player, he has just been lacking goals.

"Mario is my mate and I've tried to help him like Stevie [Gerrard], the manager and everyone else in the dressing room.

"We all know he's a top player. I always tell him ‘you need to get out there and show you are one of the best players in the world'.

"He is one of the best. He has just been missing goals but they will come now."

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Toure also reserved words of praise for Liverpool's match-clincher on the night, Lovren.

He too can draw immense confidence from his telling contribute, according to his defensive compatriot.

"It was fantastic for Dejan," continued Toure. "He's a good player and needed that goal for the confidence to come back to him.

"I thought we dominated the game. We played very well.

"In the first half we had some chances but couldn't score. In the second half the goal they scored came out of nothing, but the reaction from us was really good.

"I am really happy because even in hard times we kept calm and kept pushing. We never gave up.

"When every team came here last season they were pushing forward but not any more. Now it's different as they are set up just to not concede goals.

"You can see the manager changed things a bit and we had more chances to score goals.

"We kept playing, our confidence was there and in the end it paid off with the two late goals.

"The key was that even when we were behind, we didn't panic, we just kept playing football. The character we showed was so important."

Meanwhile, Toure admitted he was pleased to be handed a starting berth and complete the 90 minutes as Liverpool moved into the competition's last eight.

It was only the Ivorian's second start of the campaign - and his third appearance of the season.

"I love to play games," Toure said. "As long as I can play like that I am happy.

"The Capital One Cup is very important for the club. We want to play well and we want to win the competition.

"We're not dreaming of Wembley, we'll just take it game by game, give 100 per cent and see how far we can go.

"But Liverpool want to win a trophy definitely and this would be a good one for us.