Lewis Koumas becomes youngest Liverpool player to score and assist in Champions League after 6-3 LASK rout
Feel-good academy graduate makes Champions League history in Austria
Lewis Koumas became the youngest Liverpool player to score and assist in a Champions League game during Wednesday’s 6-3 win over LASK at the Raiffeisen Arena, eclipsing a record previously held by Steven Gerrard from 2001.
The first player to celebrate with Koumas in front of the travelling supporters in Linz was Liverpool’s hat-trick hero Bradley Barcola. The chain of events that brought the pair together to start for Liverpool is striking: last season Koumas was on loan at Birmingham in the Championship while Barcola was at Paris St-Germain, who went on to win the Champions League for the second season in a row.
Barcola left the stadium with the match ball after a superb hat-trick, but Koumas also found the net three times in the game, with his first two efforts ruled out for offside before third time was luck for the 21-year-old Wales international.
It came just three days after Koumas made his first Premier League start against Manchester City, a run that has been forced by injuries to Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Hugo Ekitike. Koumas nearly added a Premier League goal on Sunday when Barcola played him through and he connected sweetly, only for Gianluigi Donnarumma to keep the effort out in front of the Kop.
"I couldn't really sleep [on Sunday]. I just kept thinking about the chance all night. I feel like I couldn't have hit it any better. The keeper is huge and he was just in the right place and I think in normal circumstances it goes in," Koumas said.
Record and reaction
When told he had bettered Gerrard’s 2001 mark, Koumas asked: "Is that official?".
"It's not a bad stat, is it? And it's not a bad name to be alongside. Wow. What a legend. I just want more of this," he said.
"I need to get goals and assists. I hadn't had any before Linz so it was really important to get them."
Koumas joined Liverpool aged 11 and scored on his first-team debut as an 18-year-old under Jurgen Klopp. After spells on loan at Stoke, Birmingham and Hull, where he helped the Tigers win promotion last season, Andoni Iraola decided in the first week of pre-season that Koumas was part of his Liverpool plans.
He made his Premier League debut at Newcastle before coming on against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. He was man of the match on his first start of the season against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup, a performance Iraola described as "contagious".
"It was probably the best feeling in my career, 100%. I'm just really grateful to have the opportunity again," Koumas said after Linz. "I would not have been a happy man [if I didn't score], I would have been gutted. I just kept going because I knew the more the game was going on, it was opening up. Going over to the fans at the end meant absolutely everything. They are the reason we do this and that we want this job."
Pathway and next test
In a Liverpool side where attention tends to be directed towards big-money names, Koumas provides a real feel-good story. The son of former Wales midfielder Jason Koumas, he is enjoying a run in the first team but staying level-headed.
"This is my job," he said. "You never know when your last game is going to be. I know that sounds like a cliche, but it is true. I have got to keep pushing, every chance I get."
Koumas could lead Liverpool’s attack for a third time in seven days when the club travel to Brentford on Saturday. Iraola said on Thursday it was "too early" to tell whether Isak or Gakpo would be available.
The academy pathway is also in focus after Liverpool’s under-19s beat LASK’s youngsters 4-2 in their Uefa Youth League game on Wednesday, with 18-year-old Will Wright scoring a hat-trick.
"You see Koumas with the first team and the energy he brings to the front line – that's from being in the academy, and Will has a similar identity," said Liverpool academy boss Rob Page. "We have a manager who has come in and has an identity about how he wants to play which suits a lot of the players. And they've seen a pathway there now: Rio Ngumoha, Trey Nyoni and now Koumas."
Koumas echoed the sentiment: "We are getting chances but, ultimately, it is because we are good enough. Trey and Rio are unbelievable and, if you're good enough it doesn't matter how old you are."
"Hopefully that is the case and that's how I would love it to go, but you just have to keep working hard, keep my head down and doing what the gaffer asks of me and make it last as long as we can," he added.