Bradley Barcola scored his first Liverpool goals and his first senior hat-trick as Andoni Iraola’s side beat LASK 6-3 in the Champions League. The victory in Linz brought an immediate response to their 3-0 defeat by Manchester City, although conceding three times after the interval complicated an otherwise commanding performance.
Florian Wirtz supplied an assist, while Ronald Araujo, Jeremie Frimpong and Lewis Koumas also scored. For Liverpool, the significance extended beyond the result: two expensive attackers under scrutiny produced evidence of how their partnership could work.
But this was a convincing demonstration of attacking potential rather than proof that Liverpool’s broader problems have disappeared. LASK offered too little resistance for that conclusion, and the visitors’ late defending supplied its own warning.
Barcola offers more than a finishing answer
According to the reports, Barcola had gone through his first six Liverpool appearances without a goal or an assist. That had inevitably drawn attention to the £123m paid to bring him from Paris Saint-Germain, even if six matches represented a narrow basis for judging a player adapting to a new team.
His three goals answered the immediate question emphatically. Two first-half finishes, one with each foot, were followed by a close-range conversion from Frimpong’s delivery after the break.
The variety mattered. Barcola did not depend on repeatedly exploiting one opening: he finished a move kept alive by Koumas, attacked space for Wirtz’s pass and then arrived at the far post to complete his hat-trick. Liverpool found him through combinations, a direct forward pass and a ball across goal.
That gives the performance greater value than the headline number alone. An expensive winger needs service, but he also needs to make different kinds of movement available to those supplying it. Here, Barcola provided several answers within the same match.
Iraola’s post-match assessment, as reported by multiple outlets, also emphasised his threat in individual duels and his contribution beyond scoring. The goals were the most visible improvement, not necessarily the only one.
Wirtz benefits from a moving target
Wirtz’s contribution deserves to be read alongside Barcola’s rather than treated as a separate recovery story. The £116m midfielder was among those defended by Iraola before the match, and his assist illustrated why the output of Liverpool’s major signings is interconnected.
A creative player’s final pass requires a teammate to recognise and attack the available space. Barcola supplied that movement; Wirtz delivered the ball. Their exchange offered a more useful explanation of Liverpool’s attacking progress than simply declaring that both had regained confidence.
There is an important limitation. Reports consistently described LASK as passive and unable to sustain pressure on Liverpool’s possession. Time to assess a run and room to execute a pass are advantages that cannot be assumed against stronger opposition.
The unanswered question is therefore not whether Wirtz can find Barcola in open space. It is whether Liverpool can create comparable connections when opponents restrict that space. This match demonstrated the relationship’s possibilities without establishing its resilience.
Width spread the attacking responsibility
The full-backs were central to the scale of the victory. Tsimikas supplied two assists, including the corner headed in by Araujo, while Frimpong scored a header and created two further goals.
Those contributions prevented the evening from becoming solely a story about the two most expensive attackers. Liverpool threatened through deliveries from wide positions as well as passes into the channels, stretching an already struggling defence in different directions.
Koumas added another encouraging element. Despite having two finishes disallowed for offside, he eventually scored and also assisted Barcola. At 21 years and 25 days, he became Liverpool’s youngest player to register both a goal and an assist in a Champions League match, surpassing Steven Gerrard’s previous mark.
Liverpool’s 19 first-half attempts underlined their control. According to the reports, no away side had recorded more before the interval in the competition since those records began in 2003-04.
A breakthrough, not a complete correction
The reports differ more in emphasis than in their account of the match. Some frame LASK’s late goals as incidental to an overwhelming victory; others place greater weight on Liverpool’s defensive deterioration. Both readings have merit, but neither should erase the other.
Three goals conceded after the hour did not threaten the result. They nevertheless limit any claim that this was a fully controlled performance, particularly after a heavy defeat in Manchester.
For Barcola, the achievement stands independently of those shortcomings. He converted scrutiny into a substantial contribution and showed several routes to goal. For Liverpool, the verdict is narrower: their attack delivered an emphatic response, while the balance and concentration behind it remain unfinished business.