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Kolo Toure believes Mario Balotelli will prove he’s one of the best strikers in world football after ending his goal drought in Liverpool FC’s dramatic 2-1 victory over Swansea City in the Capital One Cup.

The Italian frontman inspired a late flourish from the Reds as he equalised just six minutes after coming off the bench and then Dejan Lovren headed home a last-gasp winner.

It was only Balotelli’s second goal since his £16million summer move from AC Milan and his first in nine matches.

Centre-back Toure, who also played alongside him at Manchester City, is convinced famine will now turn to feast for the controversial striker.

“For strikers, goals are like food,” Toure told the 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.”

Martin Emnes volleyed Swansea in front and as the minutes ticked away the Reds were staring at an early exit from the competition.

However, after Balotelli restored parity, Lovren picked the perfect moment deep into stoppage time to score his first goal for the club.

(Image: Getty Images)

Toure insisted Liverpool deserved their place in the quarter-finals.

“It was fantastic for Dejan,” he added. “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.

“We can’t score four or five like we used to do last season and we’re adapting to that.

“You can see the manager changed things a bit tonight 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.”

Toure was making only his second start of the campaign and an extended run in the Capital One Cup is vital to his hopes of gaining more game-time.

It also provides the Reds with their best hope of clinching silverware this 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% and see how far we can go.

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