Liverpool cleansed themselves from the stains of defeat by Manchester City at the earliest opportunity. A rampant display in Austria saw Bradley Barcola ignite his Liverpool account with the first hat-trick of his professional career and Andoni Iraola’s team devastate Lask’s big night in the Champions League. The major surprise was how the hosts managed to score three.
Iraola’s pre-match faith in the big-money signings Barcola and Florian Wirtz was repaid as the pair helped dismantle limited opponents. But it was not all about the money and the £123m signing from Paris Saint-Germain scoring the first goals of his Liverpool career. Lewis Koumas registered his first goal in the competition and replaced Steven Gerrard as the youngest player to score and assist in a Champions League game for Liverpool.
A total of 26 shots equalled Liverpool’s record in a Champions League away game. Apart from the hat-trick Bradley was a threat one-v-one, helped us control the game and defended the pockets. It will do their confidence good for sure.” The home end was full and in strong voice over an hour before kick-off as Lask supporters came to savour their club’s first home game in the Champions League proper.
The Lask team proved to be much less impressive though, in fairness to the Austrian crowd, their support rarely wavered even as a rout unfolded before their eyes. Liverpool revelled in their superiority and the invitation to recover from Sunday’s first defeat of the season. Iraola rested Virgil van Dijk, delaying the defender’s 200th game as Liverpool captain, and Alexis Mac Allister as he managed workloads ahead of Saturday’s visit to Brentford.
A new-look central defence of Ronald Araújo and Jérémy Jacquet were given a physical test by the Lask strikers Samuel Adeniran and Krystof Danek but handled the host’s rudimental approach comfortably. Liverpool were utterly dominant against an opponent that struggled to retain possession in all areas of the pitch. The breakthrough was inevitable but also a result of a mix-up in the Lask defence between Alemão and the goalkeeper, Lukas Jungwirth.
From the second corner that followed their error, Araújo towered above his marker to head home Kostas Tsimikas’s delivery. It was the Uruguay international’s first Liverpool goal and the start of an onslaught. Merely 96 seconds later it was 2-0 as Barcola also scored his first Liverpool goal.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
