A Stunning goal from Patrik Berger and a crowd-pleasing strike from Michael Owen won the Carlsberg Trophy for Liverpool at Lansdowne Road.

The Merseysiders completely outplayed a Leeds team that at times on Saturday afternoon was pedestrian and had no to the midfield guile of Steve McManaman and the pace and cutting edge up front of the brilliant Owen.

In defence, Liverpool put a stop to the "silly mistakes" their new joint manager, Gerard Houllier, said they had committed against St Patrick's on Friday night, with Irish international Phil Babb rekindling the form he showed early in his career.

Having dominated the first-half, in which Owen was unlucky not to have scored and had a penalty, Liverpool scored twice inside a minute just before the hour.

McManaman, superb throughout, set up Berger with one of his surging runs. The Czech Republic international unleashed a leftfooted shot of tremendous power from some 20 yards.

Inside the next minute captain Paul Ince ended a powerful burst forward by picking out Owen. The 18-year-old, a surprising choice as man-of-the-match ahead of McManaman, moved inside Molenaar to drill a low shot into the bottom corner of the net.

Afterwards, Liverpool joint manager Roy Evans said Owen was embarrassed about receiving his man-of-the-match award. "I think it gets to him that he's being picked out from the rest of the lads all the time," said Evans.

Liverpool: Friedel; Heggem, Carragher, Babb, Matteo; McAteer, Ince, McManaman, Hark ness; Owen, Riedle. Subs: Berger for Riedle (half-time), Thompson and Murphy for Ince and McManaman (both 68 mins), Dundee for Owen (76 mins).

Leeds United: Martyn; Hiden, Molenaar, Rad ebe, Harte; Halle, Haaland, Bowyer, McPhail; Hasselbaink, Matthews. Subs: Kelly and Granville for Halle and McPhail (both at half-time), Lilley and Hopkin for Bowyer and Matthews (both 71 mins), Ribeiro for Harte (86 mins).

Referee: H Byrne (Dublin).

St Patrick's Athletic's tiredness was all too evident as, playing their third match in four days, they provided little opposition for Lazio, the multi-million pound Italians who won 4-1.

Ian Gilzean scored St Patrick's consolation when heading in Keith Doyle's cross on the hour.

St Patrick's Athletic: Wood; Clarke, Lynch, Hawkins, Doyle; Devereux, Osam, Gorm ley, Russell; Molloy, Braithwaite. Subs: Croly, Long and Gilzean for Gormley, Osam and Devereux (all at half-time), McKenna for Wood (69 mins), O'Connor for Braithwaite (84 mins).

Lazio: Balotta; Negro, Lopez, Mihaijlovic, Favalli; Rambaudi, Stankovic, Marcholin, De La Pena, Nedved; Aquino. Subs: Lombardi, Got tardi, Venturin and Iannuzzi for Rambaudi, Fav alli, Marcholin and Aquino (all at half-time), Baronio for Stankovic (59 mins)

Referee: G Perry (Dublin).