Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez believes the first-half dismissal of Javier Mascherano signalled the beginning of the end for his side as they fell to a 2-0 loss at Portsmouth today.

The Argentinian midfielder saw red shortly before the interval after recklessly crashing into Tal Ben Haim, although his feet did not leave the ground.

Liverpool were already trailing to a Nadir Belhadj goal when they were reduced to 10 men and Frederic Piquionne added another late on to complete the scoring.

Benitez said: “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.”

Pompey’s victory will ignite hope of survival in the Premier League.

Portsmouth boss Avram Grant was thrilled to claim the scalp of Liverpool having narrowly missed out to leaders Chelsea in midweek.

“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.”

Pompey midfielder Michael Brown added: “We’ve been playing well in general. It was a fantastic result for us.

“It’s a matter of getting some points and three points is fantastic against a strong Liverpool team with a lot of talent. It’s an enjoyable day for us.”