Liverpool wasted no time in washing away the disappointment of their first defeat of the season, beating Lask 6-3 in Linz to maintain their 100% start to the Champions League and shatter the Austrian club’s big night on the elite European stage. Bradley Barcola scored a hat-trick — his first goals for Andoni Iraola’s side — while Ronald Araújo also opened his account for Liverpool on a restorative evening in Austria.
Barcola arrived as Liverpool’s £123m signing from Paris Saint-Germain and went into the game under scrutiny, having gone six appearances for his new club without a goal or an assist. Florian Wirtz was under similar examination. Iraola had defended much of Liverpool’s display in the defeat by Manchester City, along with his big-money recruit and the effectiveness of Wirtz, before the return to European action, and his faith was rewarded as his team routed limited opponents who may even have surprised themselves by scoring three in consolation.
The home end was full and in strong voice more than an hour before kick-off, Lask supporters having come to savour their club’s first home game in the Champions League proper. Their team proved much less impressive, although — in fairness to the Austrian crowd — their support rarely wavered as the rout unfolded. Iraola, managing workloads before Saturday’s visit to Brentford, rested Virgil van Dijk, delaying the defender’s 200th game as Liverpool captain, and Alexis Mac Allister. A new-look central defensive pairing of Araújo and Jérémy Jacquet was given a physical test by the Lask strikers Samuel Adeniran and Krystof Danek, but handled the hosts’ rudimentary approach comfortably.
Araújo also showcased his attacking talents. It was the on-loan defender’s ball that Wirtz took in his stride before gliding between two Lask players and testing the goalkeeper, Lukas Jungwirth, with a low shot, and Araújo then headed wide from a Kostas Tsimikas corner. He found his range from Tsimikas’s next set piece, towering above his marker to head home the delivery. Lask had been made to pay for uncertainty in their defence: Alemão conceded the first of two successive corners after his keeper failed to come off his line to collect a routine through ball, and the second followed his headed clearance.
Merely 96 seconds later it was 2-0 and Barcola had his first Liverpool goal. Rio Ngumoha weaved in from the right and, after the teenager had stumbled, Lewis Koumas laid the ball back to the lurking winger, who swept a first-time shot inside Jungwirth’s far post. Wirtz then supplied a much-needed assist for Barcola’s second, picking out his fellow big-money signing’s run into the Lask area and watching him roll a cool finish beyond the exposed keeper. The Germany international has looked more at home for Liverpool in the Champions League than in the Premier League, and this was no exception.
Lask could have been seriously embarrassed before half-time. Koumas had a fine finish disallowed for offside and, following another neat exchange between Wirtz and Barcola, Ryan Gravenberch saw his shot kiss the inside of the far post and rebound clear. Liverpool’s 19 attempts on goal were the most by an away side in the first half of a Champions League game since records began in 2003-04.
There was no let-up after the interval. Jeremie Frimpong morphed into an old-fashioned centre-forward to rise above Yvan Dibango and bury a textbook header into the bottom corner when Tsimikas floated a cross over from the left byline. Koumas had a second goal disallowed for offside before Alisson’s clean sheet was ruined by the Lask substitute Robert Ljubicic, who swept home inside the goalkeeper’s near post. Barcola was presented with his hat-trick when Ngumoha released Frimpong down the right and the full-back flashed a low cross through the Lask six-yard box, leaving the unmarked Barcola a simple finish at the back post.
Frimpong also supplied the assist for Koumas’s deserved goal, converted from close range after the home side were caught playing out from the back. The Lask substitute Florian Flecker brought a touch of respectability to the scoreline with two goals in four minutes, both from Dibango deliveries from the left, but there was no disguising the emphatic manner of Liverpool’s victory — nor the surge of confidence it should give to Barcola.