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November 30, 2009

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Reds beat Toffees to ease pressure

LIVERPOOL put its European woes behind it in the best possible way with a 2-0 win away to city rival Everton in the English Premier League yesterday.

Liverpool, whose hopes of reaching the knockout phase of the Champions League disappeared in midweek and which had not won in the league in a month, took a fortunate early lead when Javier Mascherano's shot was deflected past Tim Howard by Everton defender Joseph Yobo at Goodison Park.

The Toffees had two goals correctly ruled out for offside and were then denied by a great double-save by Pepe Reina before Dirk Kuyt finished it 10 minutes from time, seizing on Howard's parry of an Alberto Riera shot after another Yobo blunder.

Liverpool's last league victory was against Manchester United on October 25.

The win takes the Reds to fifth place on 23 points and leaves Everton two places above the relegation zone with 15 points after a dire run.

Earlier, Birmingham City beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0. Leader Chelsea (33) was visiting fourth-placed Arsenal (25) in a late kickoff

On Saturday, Wayne Rooney hit a two-penalty hattrick as Manchester United won 4-1 at Portsmouth to trim Chelsea's lead to two points.

Ryan Giggs also struck for the champion which now has 31 points from 14 games.

Tottenham Hotspur drew 1-1 with Aston Villa at Villa Park in the late game to leapfrog Arsenal and go third in the standings on 26 points, while Manchester City was seventh on 22 after it was held 1-1 at home by Hull City to record a Premier League record seventh successive draw.

West Ham beat Burnley 5-3 while Wigan Athletic bounced back from last week's 1-9 hammering at Spurs by beating Sunderland 1-0.

Rooney earned the headlines with his treble.

But Portsmouth, which has beaten United and drawn with it at Fratton Park in the last two seasons as well as knocking the Red Devils out of the FA Cup at Old Trafford last year, was the better team for much of the first half in its first game under manager Avram Grant following the sacking of Paul Hart.

However, Pompey paid for missing several good chances when United went ahead with a Rooney penalty in the 25th minute after he was brought down by Michael Brown.

The referee evened things up seven minutes later with another hotly-debated penalty when he decided Frederic Piquionne had had his shirt pulled and Kevin Prince Boateng scored from the spot.

"It was a strange game because if you analyze it you can say it was a good game for us. We created a lot of chances and conceded soft goals," Grant told Sky Sports.

United looked far livelier after the break and neat work by Giggs, who turned 36 yesterday, set up Rooney for his second. The third penalty of the match was awarded for a foul on Giggs in the 54th and Rooney duly converted for his hat-trick before Giggs rounded things off with a late free kick to register his 100th Premier League goal.



 

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