10-man Liverpool seal comeback win as United lose
CHRISTIAN BENTEKE’S last-gasp penalty completed 10-man Liverpool’s fightback against Crystal Palace to keep alive their hopes of a top-four finish.
Substitute Benteke went down after a faint challenge by Damien Delaney deep in stoppage time and coolly slotted home to add to Robert Firmino’s equaliser on 72 minutes.
James Milner’s dismissal for a second yellow card on 62 minutes put Liverpool on the back foot, but Firmino took advantage of a scuffed clearance from Palace goalkeeper Alex McCarthy to cancel out Joe Ledley’s low drive just after the break.
“First half we started okay but forgot to shoot on the goal. But what we did in the end was brilliant,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told Sky Sports.
“I feel sorry for Palace but I have just seen the replay (of the penalty decision) in the dressing room and it was a clear penalty. If there was no contact, Benteke would have been in a great position to shoot.”
Liverpool’s perseverance gave them a third straight Premier League win and took them up to seventh, six points behind Manchester City in fourth.
Alan Pardew’s men have now failed to win in 12 Premier League games and remain 15th, nine points above the relegation zone.
“I feel like we’ve been robbed a little bit but again maybe we shot ourselves in the foot a bit,” Pardew told BBC Sport.
“The keeper made a mistake, which cost us and made us edgy from that point and we never lost that edginess for the rest of the game.
“He (Benteke) certainly made a big meal of it (for the penalty). If it had been us, we would not have got it.”
Elsewhere, Salomon Rondon dented 10man Manchester United’s top-four challenge with a sharp second-half strike to maintain West Bromwich Albion’s Premier League revival yesterday.
The 26-year-old Venezuela striker controlled Sebastien Pocognoli’s cross from the left before burying the ball into the left corner on 67 minutes against an increasingly toothless United, who had lost Juan Mata to a second yellow card on 26 minutes.
The Spain international was booked for not retreating and blocking a quickly-taken free-kick before receiving his marching orders two minutes later for kicking Darren Fletcher’s shin in a clumsy tackle.
United’s first league defeat at The Hawthorns since 1984 kept them sixth in the table, three points behind Manchester City in fourth, while West Brom climbed to 11th with a third win in four league games.
A double from Lionel Messi helped Barcelona secure a 4-0 victory at Eibar in La Liga yesterday that moved them 11 points clear at the top and brought up 100 goals for their lethal strike force.
Munir El Haddadi, who was standing in for the suspended Neymar, tapped in the first early on, before Messi’s double, while Luis Suarez completed the rout.
Barcelona’s lethal attacking trio of Messi (35 goals), Suarez (42) and Neymar (23) have now scored a century of goals in all competitions this season.
Messi’s first was a fine solo goal, while his second came from the penalty spot.
Barcelona extended their Spanish record unbeaten run to 36 matches, which has included 30 wins. They have not lost since October 3.
They went in front in the eighth minute when Messi lifted a perfect pass forward to Suarez, who crossed from the right to the far post for Munir to tap in.
Messi added the second three minutes before half-time after running from the centre circle and ignoring the strikers either side of him who stretched the defence wide.
The Argentine made it 3-0 when he dinked a 76th-minute penalty, awarded for handball by Ivan Ramis, past goalkeeper Asier Riesgo.
Suarez scored the fourth when he shot past Riesgo from a narrow angle six minutes from time after knocking the ball through the legs of Ander Capa. – Reuters