Kewell strikes in Liverpool win

London, February 26:

Harry Kewell scored for Liverpool in a 1-0 defeat of 10-man Manchester City in the English Premier League on Sunday. The Australia winger raced on to a cross from Steven Gerrard to score inside the far post in the 40th minute. It was Liverpool’s third consecutive 1-0 win in the league.

City went a man down in the 52nd minute when Joey Barton was sent off for a second yellow card. Liverpool stays third but is now level on points with second-place Manchester United.

Bolton beat Fulham 2-1 with the winning goal from Kevin Nolan. Heidar Helguson had opened the scoring for Fulham only to also net an own goal just before halftime.

On Saturday, Arsenal lost 1-0 at Blackburn to slip to sixth and dent its chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

Blackburn swapped places with Arsenal in the standings, jumping a place to fifth. The Gunners need to finish fourth or higher to qualify for the Champions League next season — unless they win this season’s edition.

Blackburn moved to 43 points — three fewer than Tottenham and two more than Arsenal — through Morten Gamst Pedersen’s 18th-minute goal. He sidefooted a cross from Craig Bellamy but was substituted soon after with an injury sustained when he fell after scoring.

Chelsea beat Portsmouth 2-0 to extend its lead to 15 points. In other matches, Newcastle beat Everton 2-0, Birmingham beat Sunderland 1-0, and Aston Villa drew 0-0 at Charlton. The Blues recovered from Wednesday’s 2-1 Champions League loss to Barcelona with goals through Frank Lampard and Arjen Robben.

Lampard gave Chelsea the lead after 65 minutes with a low shot from just inside the penalty area, and Robben scored 13 minutes later following a pass from Eidur Gudjohsen.

Spanish La Liga

MADRID: Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o threatened to leave the field in the 77th minute after receiving racist taunts from the crowd, but was persuaded to remain by Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard and finish off the club’s 2-0 victory at Zaragoza.

Barcelona took the lead three minutes later when Ronaldinho converted a penalty, awarded after Albert Celades was called for handball that prevented a goal by Edmilson. Substitute Henrik Larsson added the second goal two minutes later when he clipped home a low cross from the right by Eto’o.

Barcelona’s victory in Rijkaard’s 100th league game at the helm of the club gave it 58 points and extended its lead to nine points. Valencia has 49 points while Real Madrid is next with 48 and Osasuna has 46. In other matches, Atletico Madrid beat

Malaga 5-0. Fernando Torres and substitute Juan Valera each scored twice.