Liverpool rebounds from upsetting weekend

Five-time European champion Liverpool bounced back from a disastrous weekend and defeated defending Italian champion and Serie A leader Inter Milan, 2-0, Tuesday in a gripping European Champions League match at Anfield.

Goals in the last five minutes by Dirk Kuyt and Steven Gerrard earned the home team the deserved victory, which partially removed the sting of Saturday’s last-minute loss to lowly Barnsley in the English F.A. Cup.

Liverpool took the game to Inter from the start and was given a boost when Belgian referee Frank de Bleeckere ejected Inter defender Marco Materazzi – yes, the same player famously head-butted by Zinedine Zidane in the 2006 World Cup final – before the match was 30 minutes old.

Two yellow cards, both of them for soft fouls that did not deserve a card, led to Materazzi’s dismissal, but Inter Milan held firm despite playing a man down for an hour. It was not until the final minutes that first Kuyt and then Gerrard found a way to beat the tenacious defense and Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar.

Roberto Mancini, Inter’s coach, questioned De Bleeckere’s calls.

“The referee got it wrong twice,” he said. “Both were tackles that were given as yellow cards. That was wrong.”

The loss was only the second of the season in all competitions for Inter, whose only other defeat came in September. For Liverpool, it was the Reds’ 100th home victory in European competition.

The teams play the second leg of the home-and-home series in Milan on March 11.

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Another team to score an eye-opening Champions League victory Tuesday was AS Roma, which upset defending Spanish champion and nine-time European champion Real Madrid, 2-1, in Rome.

Veteran Spanish international Raul gave Madrid the early lead, but Chilean DavidPizarro tied it for Roma before Brazilian Alessandro Mancini scored the winner. “The only thing I’m not happy with is the result,” said Real’s German coach, BerndtSchuster. “We deserved more.”

Like Inter Milan’s Mancini, Schuster criticized the officiating, in this case the way German referee Herbert Fandel called the game.

“When you call him my compatriot, that is the worst thing you can say,” Schuster told reporters. “He gave too many yellow cards [that favored] the home side. But I don’t think this influenced the result.”

The return game in Madrid is on March 5.

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Also winning in the Champions League on Tuesday was Germany’s Schalke 04, which edged two-time European champion FC Porto of Portugal, 1-0, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

The lone goal came in the fourth minute from Kevin Kuranyi, Germany’s Brazilian-born international, who drove home the rebound after Porto goalkeeper Helton could only punch away a fierce shot by MarcioRafinha.

“Obviously, it’s not a result to give us great confidence for the return,” said Porto Coach Jesualdo Ferreira. “But we’ve come through more difficult situations than this. There’s still an opportunity for us to play a great game.”

Porto will host Schalke on March 5 with a place in the quarterfinals on the line.

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The fourth and final of Tuesday’s Champions League encounters turned out to be a dull affair, with Chelsea managing a 0-0 tie with Olympiakos on the road in Greece.

“The result is OK,” said Chelsea Coach Avram Grant. “The performance is a bit disappointing, though. But it’s difficult to play here, they have good supporters and Olympiakos are very well organized [and] tactically very good.”

Said Olympiakos Coach Takis Lemonis: “When we go to London for the second leg on March 5 we will try our best to win. I don’t know if we will qualify, but we will try.”

The Champions League continues today with defending champion AC Milan taking on Arsenal in London, Manchester United playing at Olympique Lyon in France, Barcelona playing Celtic in Glasgow, and Sevilla playing Fenerbahce in Turkey.

grahame.jones@latimes.com