Javier Mascherano saw red as bottom of the table
Portsmouth beat
Liverpool 2-0 at Fratton
Park.
Pompey were good value for the three points as
Liverpool's campaign goes into
free fall.
Nadir Belhadj opened the scoring to put the hosts ahead after
poor defending from the Reds.
Mascherano was red carded for a nasty tackle on Tal Ben-Haim
before an unmarked Daniel Agger headed high for Liverpool.
Late on Frederic Piquionne's volley from a tight angle sealed
the home side's deserved victory.
Rafael Benitez's pre-match guarantee that his side would finish
in the top four is now looking a little optimistic.
Benitez believes the first-half dismissal of Javier Mascherano
signalled the beginning of the end for his side.
He told Sky Sports: "If you analyse the first half we
were doing well, even with their goal but then came the Mascherano
incident.
"We were a good team in the first half and the sending off
changed everything.
"We had some chances, we should have scored, we were controlling
the game and everything changed with Mascherano.
"Now we have to hope we can win our next game."
The result also means Portsmouth boss Avram Grant maintains his unbeaten
record against Benitez after posting two wins and two draws during
his time at Chelsea in the 2008
season.
"Today we played like a team," he said.
"From game to game we are playing better and today we deserved
the win.
"We played on Wednesday against a team in first place at home,
and we showed ourselves if we can do things well at the bottom of
the table we can still surprise the other team, and today it went
well."