Bradley Barcola opened his Liverpool account with a hat-trick, though Andoni Iraola's team were found wanting at the back in an entertaining 6-3 Champions League victory.
LASK 3-6 Liverpool: Barcola bags hat-trick in big Champions League win
Liverpool stormed 6-1 up against LASK on Wednesday, with Bradley Barcola starring, though Andoni Iraola may be concerned by their defending.
Barcola had made a slow start to his Liverpool career following his big-money move from Paris Saint-Germain, but the two-time European champion put those troubles behind him at Raiffeisen Arena.
His hat-trick goal put Liverpool 5-1 up midway through the second half, with Lewis Koumas then nudging the visitors into an even more commanding position, though some dismal Reds defending allowed LASK a glimmer of hope heading into the latter stages.
Ronald Araujo put Liverpool ahead in the 22nd minute, heading home from Kostas Tsimikas' inswinging corner.
And Liverpool doubled their advantage within 96 seconds, as Koumas wriggled free and teed up Barcola, who confidently swept into the left-hand corner.
Liverpool's stand-in captain Tsimikas did brilliantly to pick out Koumas soon after, but the youngster's neat finish was disallowed for offside, before Ryan Gravenberch's low shot bounced out off the post.
But there was no denying Barcola in the 37th minute, with the Frenchman coolly slotting in his second Liverpool goal after latching onto Florian Wirtz's incisive pass.
Liverpool had their fourth as Jeremie Frimpong headed in from Tsimikas' centre six minutes into the second half.
Iraola switched his centre-backs on the hour, with Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez coming on. Within moments, Yvan Dibango found Robert Ljubicic, who drilled in.
Yet Liverpool swiftly restored their four-goal cushion as Barcola slammed into a gaping net after meeting Frimpong's cross.
Barcola went close with a cheeky lob as he hunted down a fourth, but the Reds did not have to wait long to score again, with Koumas tucking Frimpong's cross between the legs of Lukas Jungwirth.
Dibango grabbed his second assist as he lobbed in for Florian Flecker to head into an open goal, with Van Dijk and Gomez again caught out.
Liverpool's defence was found wanting once more in the 77th minute. Dibango put another brilliant ball into the box, and Flecker hammered in, though there was to be no famous comeback for the Austrian champions.
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Liverpool suffered their first defeat under Iraola when they went down 3-0 to Manchester City last weekend, so a trip to a Champions League minnow was an ideal opportunity to get back on track.
Iraola took the chance to rest Van Dijk from the start, naming Liverpool's third-youngest team in a Champions League game, but he stuck with Barcola and Wirtz, with the latter having come in for criticism from Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher in the wake of the defeat to Man City.
But Wirtz and Barcola were Liverpool's chief threats as they recorded the most shots by an away team in the first half of a Champions League match on record (19), and went three goals up by half-time in a match in the competition for the first time since April 2018, when they led Man City 3-0.
Wirtz pulled the strings before the break, though it was the excellent Tsimikas who led Liverpool creatively, laying on six chances in total, including his two assists.
Barcola helped himself to his first senior hat-trick on his 206th appearance – he is Liverpool's first treble scorer in any competition since Luis Diaz v Bayer Leverkusen in November 2024.
Koumas, meanwhile, became the youngest player to score and assist in a Champions League game for Liverpool, breaking the record of Steven Gerrard.
However, as crisp as Liverpool's attacking was (they generated 3.34 expected goals from 26 attempts), Iraola will be concerned by some slack defending in the latter stages.
Liverpool suddenly became embroiled in their highest-scoring European match since the 2001 UEFA Cup final (a 5-4 win v Alaves), while only four Champions League matches have featured more goals than this one.
LASK generated a respectable 2.02 xG, with Dibango assisting all of their goals. The last player to provide three assists in a Champions League match was, coincidentally, Van Dijk, back in January of this year.
