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Liverpool’s unsung hero Fabinho has revealed the gamble he took knowing his team-mates would ‘kill’ him if he failed.

The quiet midfielder was the unlikely star of a penalty shoot out at Wembley, in the EFL Cup final against Chelsea, where his coolly-taken ‘Panenka’ shocked his own fans, and stunned the opposition.

It came off in style with keeper Kepa, supposedly a penalty expert, totally nonplussed. And Fabinho couldn’t suppress a laugh, as he said: “The day before the final, I tried to do a Panenka (in training). It was just me and Luis Diaz, with no goalkeeper in the goal.

“I told him ‘tomorrow if it goes to pens, I will shoot like this’. He didn’t believe me! But when I was walking to the box to take the penalty, it was in my mind to shoot a Panenka. It worked!”

GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)

Fabinho was all smiles as he relived the moment ahead of the Champions League tie with Inter Milan, which could still go to penalties if the Italians produce a shock comeback.

And he admitted it was a bold gamble, which could have made him look stupid if he got it wrong.

“When you shoot a penalty like this, you know that if you miss, when you come back to the dressing room everyone will kill you,” he said.

“But it was in my mind that I would take it like this, and that I could do it.”

That penalty helped Liverpool to their first trophy this season, and they still remain in three more competitions, with the chance to reach the Champions League quarter final next up at Anfield.

Fabinho is hardly getting carried away, but he showed in resolve in insisting that Liverpool try to win every trophy they chase, and he said they will be serious about pursuing a quadruple.

“It’s really nice to still be alive in three competitions and win the Carabao Cup. And when you play good then it’s normal for the media to talk about Liverpool winning four trophies,” he said.

“It is something new for us because I’ve ever played a domestic cup final with Liverpool, never played an FA Cup quarter-final with Liverpool, so it’s important to win trophies, to be in the last phase of the competitions.

Have Your Say! Will Liverpool win the quadruple this season? Join the debate here.

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“We are Liverpool and we try to win everything we can. It’s good to play a lot of games in a lot of competitions. Of course at a big club like Liverpool we want to win everything: tomorrow we will try to win the Inter game.”

Fabinho is hoping to be on the scoresheet again too, after scoring six times this season – twice the number he had recorded in his three previous seasons with the club.

He has set himself a target of double figures, and believes further success in the cup competitions will give him the chance to get there.

“I didn’t think much of a target, like 10 goals, but I have six goals and I think double digits is gettable. We have a chance to score a lot.”

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Love Island UK is set to return for a series in 2021, according to its presenter Laura Whitmore.

Whitmore has told  The Telegraph’s Stella magazine : “I have been told that it’s coming back. I love doing it, it’s such a fun show.

“And I actually think it’s been good to have had that break, for everyone who works on it, because we all went through a loss. 

“It’s nice to realise how much people missed the show. Apparently applications are crazy this year.”

Whitmore joked about the ITV2 show, saying: “Let’s just pray the vaccines kick in. 

“I’ve got a friend who jokes we should do Love Island Extra Baggage, with people who have ex-husbands and kids. 

“Maybe if it’s only the older people that have been vaccinated, we’ll do that!”

Carolyn McCall, ITV2 Chief Executive, has spoken out in an interview and revealed the show’s future is still in question.

“I genuinely don’t know,” she said on Radio 4’s Media Show.

“We will want to put Love Island on air because it’s been off air for a little while, we didn’t do it last summer.

“We are looking at all our options at the moment because the pandemic makes it hard.”

Famous faces to have made a name for themselves on the ITV2 reality TV contest include the likes of Dr Alex George.

Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham were crowned winners in 2018, before 2019 saw Amber Gill win alongside Greg O’Shea.

Other faces to have appeared include the likes of Maura Higgins and Ovie Soko, as well as Molly-Mae Hague.

Five-time Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais is known for courting controversy with his comedy. As such, he pulled no punches while sharing how he might have handled Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. 

When asked about the Jada Pinkett Smith jab that provoked the actor (“G.I. Jane 2—can’t wait to see it”), Gervais dismissed it during a recent Twitter live, calling Rock’s line, “like, the tamest joke I would’ve ever have told.” The comedian then insisted that Smith wouldn’t have become violent if he had been onstage. “Nothing would happen to me because I wouldn’t have told a joke about his wife’s hair. I’d have told a joke about her boyfriend,” Gervais said. (The Smiths have spoken openly about Pinkett Smith’s “entanglement” with musician August Alsina during a time when the couple was amicably split.)

In the slap’s aftermath, many pointed out that Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss. Gervais shrugged off the autoimmune disorder’s severity. “Someone said it was joking about her disability,” he said on Twitter. “Well, I’m going a bit thin, so I’m disabled. That means that I can park right up next to Tesco’s now. And I’m fat. That’s a disease. I’m fat and balding. I should get fucking benefit.”

Kenny Rock, Chris’s brother, said in a statement earlier this week that the comedian was unaware of Pinkett Smith’s alopecia prior to the Academy Awards. “The joke was funny,” he said. “It wasn’t hilarious funny, but I know that if he knew that she had alopecia…he wouldn’t make a joke about that. But he didn’t know.”

Gervais previously tweeted his hypothetical Oscar monologue ahead of the ceremony. “I’d start with ‘Hello. I hope this show helps cheer up the ordinary people watching at home,” he wrote. “If you’re unemployed for example, take some comfort in the fact that even if you had a job, your salary probably wouldn’t be as much as the goody bag all the actors have just been given.’” Gervais continued, “I’m proud to announce that this is the most diverse and progressive Oscars ever. Looking out I see people from all walks of life. Every demographic under the sun. Except poor people, obviously. Fuck them.”

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