Liverpool took a seventh League Cup title as they beat Manchester United 2-0 at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium with goals from England internationals Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen.
The early minutes were typically frenetic, with neither side fashioning a clear chance, before Ryan Giggs fired a 20-yarder straight at Jerzy Dudek.
After 21 minutes the first chance arrived, as Giggs played in Ruud van Nistelrooy, but the Dutchman couldn't direct his shot on target.
Liverpool had showed little of note by this stage of proceedings, but just past the half-hour mark Owen wriggled clear but was denied by the alert Fabien Barthez.
Six minutes before half time, Gerrard's shot from 30 yards out took a wicked deflection off David Beckham to leave Barthez stranded.
United hit back with Dudek parrying Juan Veron's shot before Stephane Henchoz cleared Scholes' follow-up off the goal-line to preserve the half-time lead.
Straight after the restart Liverpool had appeals for a spot-kick turned down after Emile Heskey went down under a challenge by Gary Neville.
Jamie Carragher made an important clearance, before Dudek produced an excellent save to deny van Nistelrooy an equaliser.
Czech sub Milan Baros almost set up Gerrard for a decisive second soon after coming on, but Barthez deflected the shot away for a corner.
Scholes extended Dudek at the other end as the second half moved towards its halfway point and then van Nistelrooy mis-hit his shot when well placed, allowing Dudek to block.
Sir Alex Ferguson threw on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in place of Wes Brown with 17 minutes to go and as the game entered the last ten minutes, Dudek again denied van Nistelrooy.
And then with four minutes to go Dietmar Hamann broke clear of the United defence and played in Owen, who finished neatly past Barthez to seal the triumph.