MARK OF DISTINCTION
Viduka has become the first Leeds player to score four goals in the Premiership and the first to score a hat-trick for over five years, the last being Gary McAllister against Coventry City in 1995.
Liverpool though, will be ruing giving away the lead on two separate occasions and also missing the chance to go level with Manchester United and Arsenal at the top of the Premiership. Sami Hyypia had given the away side the lead as early as the second minute when he rose unchallenged on the penalty spot to head past Paul Robinson.
The Reds were by far the better team in the opening stages and Emile Heskey almost broke clear after ten minutes, but Jonathon Woodgate produced a brilliant tackle, but his day was cut short when he was forced off just two minutes later.
The second then came from a similar situation from the first, Patrick Berger won a free kick on the right, Gary McAllister curled a precise ball into the area and Christian Ziege flicked the ball past the helpless Robinson who could do nothing about either if the goals.
Viduka then grabbed his first just six minutes later when he capitalised on a dreadful mistake from Ziege. The German was forced into a corner by Alan Smith, and without looking up he sliced the ball into the path of the Australian who chipped the ball into the far corner past Westerveld.
Liverpool though, still looked the most comfortable and going in at half time, they would still have fancied themselves to take all three points, but just moments into the second period Leeds grabbed the equaliser.
Stand-in skipper Gary Kelly broke down the right hand side and sent a swinging ball into the box for Viduka to head unchallenged past Westerveld.
Undeterred Liverpool pushed forward, but then Leeds should have grabbed their third through Smith. Terrible defending from Markus Babbel and Westerveld gave the Leeds youngster the ball on the edge of the area with an empty net, but Jamie Carragher somehow managed to get across and block what looked a certain goal.
Then Liverpool struck with what was the goal of the game, Dietmar Hamann picked up the and spotted Ziege free on the left, the former Middlesbrough ace then brought the ball forward before feeding Berger on the left edge of the area, he looked up and squared the ball for Smicer who took one touch before dispatching the ball past Robinson.
In truth Leeds looked a beaten side, and not even the most adamant Elland Road fan could have predicted what was about to happen in just three scintillating minutes.
Olivier Dacourt picked up the ball on the edge of area with 17 minutes left and he found Viduka on the edge of the area, he twisted and turned Berger on the edge of the six yard box, before firing past Westerveld and Carragher on the line.
Then Liverpool were stung by Viduka and Leeds` fourth, Smith tried to probe and picked up the ball in a similar position to Dacourt and he played Viduka through - who was offside, but he took the ball on and finished superbly to send the home fans delirious.
Liverpool boss Gerrard Houllier was understandably upset at his sides capitulation after the game: "It's difficult to believe we lost - we dropped three points today," said the Frenchman.
"We played well throughout the first half, made good breaks and went two goals up. I thought they had no chances in first half except the present we gave them.
"I was very disappointed I thought we collapsed physically in the end. I thought some of the lads were tired and we have to accept the fact that we allowed Leeds to come back into the game.
"The third goal they scored, had we held the lead longer I thought we would have won. The fourth goal looked a bit offside, I don't think the assistant referee was very clear on certain occasions. We should have been more clinical with our chances.
"Our defensive play was poor in the end. We deserved at least a draw but should have won."
Leeds boss O'Leary on the other hand was full of praise for his goalscoring hero Viduka.
"We have spirit and in Viduka and Smith we always had a chance of taking their back four on." said O'Leary. "We were a bit lucky both teams conceded bad goals, particularly on our part.
"Poor marking and two free kicks given away were poor - in dangerous places like that. I didn`t think we could win it at 2-3 but I felt we gave them two goals, they didn't earn them and weren`t playing particularly well. I don't mean that disrespectfully.
"Losing Woodgate is par for the course, it sums it up. Its too early to say if he will be ready for Wednesday. I hope we get loads of luck over there against Milan, the way we are depleted. I liked beating Liverpool as a player and I like it as a coach!"
The man of the moment Viduka was obviously delighted with his contribution.
"It was one of those games every time I had a sniff at goal it went in
"It is very rare to get those sort of games, I have scored four before, but not in this big a game.
"We got off to a pretty bad start, conceded two goals from set pieces, and it was an uphill battle from then. We needed a bit of luck in those situations and the confidence was brought back to the team.
"I have performed better and not scored this many goals, I don't think I had an exceptionally good game."
