London: Liverpool and Michael Owen put their run of poor form behind them as the England striker scored twice in an easy 3-0 home win over Portsmouth in the Premier League on Wednesday.

The victory takes Liverpool up three places to fifth with 42 points from 28 games. Portsmouth stay third from bottom with 24 points, two points adrift of Leicester City and the safety zone.

German Hamann scored a splendid one when he met an Owen cross on the volley that flew into the net from 20 metres. Owen found the net just before the half-hour mark when he converted Jamie Carragher’s right wing cross from six metres to make it 2-0. The England forward struck again after 58 minutes.

In Italian Cup action, Lazio midfielder Stefano Fiore struck two second-half goals to hand the Rome side a 2-0 home win over Juventus in the first leg on Wednesday. The Italian international broke the deadlock in the 59th minute. He followed up 10 minutes from time by hooking in from close range to hand Lazio a healthy advantage to take to Turin for the second leg on May 12.