Liverpool moved into second place in the Premier League on Saturday, beating Everton 3-1 in the Merseyside Derby.
Liverpool played a man short from the 18th minute when England international Steven Gerrard was sent off on two yellow cards within 60 seconds; one for kicking the ball away and the second for a foul on Kevin Kilbane.
There were five other yellow cards in a physical first half and a dozen in the match.
PHOTO: EPA
Gerrard's absence didn't slow Liverpool.
The Reds went ahead just before the break, taking a 1-0 lead on an own-goal when Everton's Phil Neville headed the ball into his net.
Luis Garcia made it 2-0 in the 47th, with Tim Cahill getting Everton's lone goal in the 61st. Harry Kewell put the match away for Liverpool in the 84th.
Everton was reduced to 10 men in the 73rd when Andy Van der Meyde was sent off on a red card.
Chelsea leads the Premier League with 75 points, followed by Liverpool (64), Manchester United (63), Tottenham (52) and Arsenal (50). Blackburn has 49, followed by Bolton with 48 and Wigan with 46.
In the League Championship -- the level just below the Premier League -- league-leading Reading could clinch promotion with a victory at Leicester. The Royals could even go up with a draw or loss.
Hearts and Rangers picked up victories as they tried to keep up with league-leading Celtic.
Second-place Hearts won 2-1 at Falkirk with Edgaras Jankauskas scoring the winner in the 81st.
Rangers defeated Dunfermline 1-0, with Sotirios Kyrgiakos scoring in the 70th at Rangers' Ibrox Stadium.
In other Premier League games, it was: Aberdeen 2, Motherwell 2; Dundee United 2, Kilmarnock 2; Hiberian 0, Inverness 2.
Celtic plays at Livingston on Sunday.
Celtic leads with 76 points with Hearts on 62 and Rangers on 56.
A weakened FC Barcelona drew 0-0 on its visit to last-place Malaga, leaving the defending champion in need of 14 points from its eight remaining games to be certain of winning its 18th Spanish league title.
Barcelona lies 13 points clear of second-place Osasuna, which lost 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao in Saturday's late game.
Barcelona has 68 points, while Osasuna stayed with 55.
Ten-man Juventus was held to 1-1 by AS Roma, and second-place AC Milan defeated Fiorentina 3-1 in the Serie A.
With seven rounds left to the end of the season, Juventus looked closer to a record 29th Italian title, its second in a row under coach Fabio Capello.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB