Samed Yesil hit his third goal in two games as Liverpool U21s wrapped up their pre-season trip to Ireland with a 2-1 win over UCD on Sunday.

The German had notched twice in a 6-0 victory over Waterford United on Friday evening and made an impact again this time around, coming from the substitutes' bench to double the Reds' advantage thanks to a Jack Dunn pass.

Michael Beale's side had earlier taken the lead through a goal from Cameron Brannagan, who poked the ball home after fine approach play from Sergi Canos with half an hour gone in Dublin.

They were given a scare late on by lively opponents, when Samir Belhout headed home from a corner to set up a frantic finish.

But the young Reds held out to secure a win which left Beale delighted.

He said: "After playing on Friday we tired a little bit in the second half, you could see the boys had a really good long week.

"But in patches we played really, really well and created a number of chances and scored a fantastic second goal from Samed Yesil."

Beale's team will now return to Merseyside ahead of further pre-season fixtures against PSV and Porto and the U21s boss is excited by the challenge that awaits.

"We're joining some of the players that have not gone away with the first team so that's nice to have some senior players with us for a couple of days," he added.

"Then we're building up next to play against PSV and Porto in a tournament which is really exciting for us.

"The idea of pre-season is to raise the level of game as we go and I think while this weekend has been really good in terms of our fitness next weekend is going to be a real test technically and tactically."

Liverpool U21s first half: Vigouroux, Randall, Hart, Paez, Brewitt, Gomez, Canos, Marsh, Sinclair, Brannagan, Dunn.

Second half: Firth, Virtue, Paez, Polgar, Whelan, O'Hanlon, Phillips, Brannagan, Dunn, Yesil, Sinclair.