Birmingham City's Obafemi Martins (L) and Nikola Zigic hold the trophy after beating Arsenal in their English League Cup final at Wembley Stadium in London Sunday. (Reuters) LONDON: Birmingham ended a 48-year wait for silverware by upsetting Arsenal 2-1 with a last-minute winner in the League Cup final, while Manchester City's Premier League title push took another blow with a 1-1 draw against Fulham. Nigeria striker Obafemi Martins took advantage of a defensive mix-up to stroke the ball into an empty net and earn Birmingham only its second major trophy after a League Cup triumph in 1963. “We weren't given a prayer by the pundits but we believed today. It was a titanic performance by the players,” said Birmingham manager Alex McLeish, whose side is battling against relegation from the Premier League. Netherlands striker Robin van Persie had canceled out Nikola Zigic's opener for Birmingham but Arsenal remains trophyless since 2005, although it still has the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup to play for. “I wanted to end our wait for a trophy today,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “We got what we expected from Birmingham – they are a team who fight very hard and cause a lot of problems from long balls. “Congratulations to them, they got the trophy. But we have regrets with the way we conceded the (Martins) goal.” Damien Duff's second-half equalizer for Fulham at Eastlands left City 10 points off league leader Manchester United, which also has a game in hand over its crosstown rival. Mario Balotelli had put City in front in the 28th but Duff's leveler will give extra delight to Fulham manager Mark Hughes, who was fired by City 14 months ago. West Ham beat Liverpool 3-1 in Sunday's other league match to move off the bottom of the table. The defeat ended the Reds' six-match unbeaten streak in the league, denying them the chance to move within three points of fifth-place Chelsea. Villarreal draws at Santander Substitute Nilmar scored an injury-time equalizer as a lackluster Villarreal managed a 2-2 draw at Racing Santander in the Spanish league Sunday. Earlier, Felipe Caicedo scored the winner as Levante beat Osasuna 2-1 for its fourth win in five games. Also, Getafe drew 0-0 at Hercules. Lionel Messi scored his league-leading 26th goal Saturday in Barcelona's 3-0 victory at Mallorca, which stretched the two-time Spanish champion's lead in the standings to seven points after Real Madrid drew 0-0 at Deportivo La Coruna. Udinese routs Palermo Udinese moved within one point of a Champions League spot with a 7-0 rout of nine-man Palermo Sunday in the Italian league. Elsewhere, Parma forward Amauri scored two late goals as Parma came back to draw 2-2 at Roma. Roma's city rival Lazio lost 1-0 at Cagliari due to a horrendous own goal from defender Andre Dias. AC Milan leads with 55 points, Napoli is next with 52, Inter Milan has 50, Lazio 48, Udinese 47 and Roma 43. Also, it was: Bari 1, Fiorentina 1; Brescia 2, Lecce 2; and Cesena 1, Chievo Verona 0. Bremen earns a draw Sebastian Proedl scored in injury time to give Werder Bremen a 2-2 home draw against Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga Sunday. With ten games remaining, Bremen is 15th on 25 points, one above Kaiserslautern in the relegation playoff place. Leverkusen remains second, 12 points behind Borussia Dortmund. Earlier, Tamas Hajnal secured a 2-0 victory for 10-man Stuttgart at Eintracht Frankfurt. Qatar names Rajevac coach Qatar hired Milovan Rajevac of Serbia Sunday to coach its national side, following the firing of Frenchman Bruno Metsu after the team's quarterfinal exit at the Asian Cup last month. The 54-year-old Rajevac will take over on March 1 and has signed a contract for an undisclosed amount through the 2014 World Cup. Rajevac coached Ghana until 2010 and most recently was in charge of Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli. He said Sunday his immediate goal is qualifying for the next World Cup and the 2015 Asian Cup and felt the country had some good, up-and-coming players. “All coaches dream of managing a national team and I am thrilled to be leading Qatar,” said Rajevac, who also has been an assistant at Qatari club Al-Sadd. “I think Qatar can raise its ratings at the Asian level. We saw good performances from Asian teams in the World Cup and Qatar can be one of the teams at the 2014 World Cup.”
