Bradley Barcola hat-trick fires Liverpool to 6-3 rout of LASK in Linz
Bradley Barcola ended a slow start to his Liverpool career with a first-half-heavy display and a hat-trick, as Liverpool beat LASK 6-3 at the Raiffeisen Arena in Linz on Wednesday night in the UEFA Champions League.
Barcola finds his stride
The France forward, signed from Paris Saint-Germain in a deal that could eventually be worth £123m, had gone six appearances without a goal or an assist. That changed in Austria. He swept in his first Liverpool goal 96 seconds after Ronald Araujo opened the scoring, then added a second after a pass from Florian Wirtz, before completing his hat-trick with a simple finish at the back post after a Frimpong cross.
Liverpool recorded the most shots by an away side in the first half of a Champions League match on record (19), and went three goals up by half-time in the competition for the first time since April 2018. Barcola's hat-trick was also the first by a Liverpool player in any competition since Luis Diaz against Bayer Leverkusen in November 2024.
Araujo and Koumas add to the rout
Araujo headed home from a Kostas Tsimikas corner in the 22nd minute, his first goal for the club. Stand-in captain Tsimikas was a constant creative force, laying on six chances, including two assists. Lewis Koumas became the youngest player to score and assist in a Champions League game for Liverpool, surpassing Steven Gerrard's record, and he scored after Frimpong's cross following a Liverpool pressure that caught LASK playing out from the back.
Frimpong himself rose to head in the fourth goal early in the second half, showing a centre-forward's instincts from full-back.
Defensive lapses let LASK back in
Liverpool's dominance was undermined in the closing stages. Robert Ljubicic swept in from close range after Iraola made a half-time switch that brought Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez onto the pitch, and Florian Flecker headed in from a Yvan Dibango delivery and then scored again four minutes later. Dibango assisted all three LASK goals, and the home side generated 2.02 expected goals.
Liverpool's own attack was rated at 3.34 xG from 26 attempts. Alisson's clean sheet was lost, and the match became Liverpool's highest-scoring European game since the 2001 UEFA Cup final, when they beat Alaves 5-4.
Relief after Manchester City defeat
The result came four days after Liverpool's first defeat of the season, a 3-0 loss to Manchester City, and was an important reset. Iraola rested Van Dijk, who was delaying his 200th game as captain, and Alexis Mac Allister, managing workloads ahead of Saturday's trip to Brentford. Iraola's selection still included Wirtz, who had been criticised by Jamie Carragher after the City defeat, and Wirtz repaid that faith with a strong first half.
For Iraola, the win offered reassurance on the attack, though the defensive lapses will need attention before a busier run of fixtures.