Football Insane

Steven Gerrard’s controversial penalty earned Liverpool a 2-2 Premier League draw with Birmingham City here at Anfield on Monday after the visitors had earlier fought back to take the lead.

Gerrard, who came off the bench following a groin problem, rescued a point from the penalty spot after David Ngog went down under Lee Carsley’s challenge in the penalty area, with the furious Blues insisting the striker had dived.

But the Reds remain seventh in the table with manager Rafael Benitez still facing intense pressure.

Newly-promoted City had led at the break after goals from Christian Benitez and Cameron Jerome cancelled out Ngog’s opener.

The Reds went into the game on the back of six defeats in eight matches but Ngog looked to have set them on their way to victory with his early effort.

But Ecuador international Benitez pulled Birmingham level with a close-range header – his first goal in English football – before Jerome gave the visitors a shock lead with a superb strike.

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Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo won “substantial” libel damages on Monday over a newspaper report saying he went on a drink-fueled “bender” in a Hollywood nightclub.

The Daily Mirror reported in July last year that Ronaldo, who does not drink alcohol, had gone on a drinking binge despite the fact that he was on crutches, recovering from an ankle operation.

Under the headline “Ron the Lash,” it said the then Manchester United player had spent £10,000 on champagne and vodka for friends and models, having drunk four glasses of red wine himself earlier in the evening.

“It described how one clubber claimed to have seen him throw his crutches down on the floor and try to dance on his uninjured foot,” his lawyer Ronald Thwaites told the court.

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