Ipswich Town's Tamas Priskin celebrates scoring the team's first goal against Arsenal in Ipswich Wednesday. (AP)LONDON: Arsenal conceded a late goal to lose 1-0 at second-tier club Ipswich in the League Cup semifinals Wednesday, and Liverpool went down 2-1 at Blackpool in the Premier League. Tamas Priskin's goal gave Ipswich the first-leg advantage, holding off a defender before sliding the ball past goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny in the 78th minute. Kenny Dalglish's first Premier League match back as Liverpool manager ended in the club's second loss this season to Blackpool, which returned to the top flight after a 30-year absence. Liverpool striker Fernando Torres scored after three minutes, but Blackpool's Gary Taylor-Fletcher leveled nine minutes later and teammate D.J. Campbell's second-half goal clinched the victory. Messi hits three In Madrid, Lionel Messi celebrated a second successive World Player of the Year award with a hat trick as Barcelona thrashed second division Real Betis 5-0 in a King's Cup quarterfinal first leg Wednesday. Earlier, two goals from Alvaro Negredo and a late strike from Alexis scrambled a 3-3 draw for holders Sevilla at Villarreal. Messi paraded the FIFA Ballon d'Or trophy on the pitch at the Nou Camp before kickoff, flanked by team mates Andres Iniesta and Xavi who came in second and third respectively, and then took apart a valiant Betis. The Argentine scored the first just before halftime, dinking the ball over the goalkeeper from an Iniesta pass, showed persistence to score the second in the 62nd, and claimed his hat trick with a breakaway goal 11 minutes later. Pedro and Seydou Keita wrapped up the scoring to leave the second division leaders with a mountain to climb in the next week's second leg. Barcelona went 28 straight games without defeat during the 1973-74 season. This season's team will be aiming to surpass that mark and notch its 13th straight league victory against Malaga this weekend. In the other game while Villarreal coach Juan Carlos Garrido was suspended for the match, Cani was available after having a red card revoked and the midfielder opened the scoring in the 24th minute of a high-tempo game. Eto'o scores twice In Milan, Samuel Eto'o scored twice in Inter Milan's 3-2 win over Genoa in the round of 16 of the Italian Cup Wednesday, taking his tally to 21 goals in all competitions so far this season. Eto'o gave Inter a 2-0 halftime lead. After the break, Houssine Kharja scored for Genoa with a penalty, but McDonald Mariga hit Inter's third soon after. Giuseppe Sculli scored Genoa's second goal in injury time. In the other Italian Cup match, Fabio Miccoli scored a penalty in the 80th minute to give Palermo a 1-0 win at home to Chievo Verona. Chievo defender Carlos Rincon brought down Miccoli, and the Palermo striker got back up to break the deadlock.
