Liverpool thrash LASK 3-6 as Barcola hits hat trick in Champions League

Nine goals, six of them Liverpool's, and a final score of 3-6 that barely did justice to what unfolded at the Raiffeisen Arena. LASK added some late drama with three goals in just 14 minutes, but by then Liverpool had long since put the game away, in a Champions League league phase clash.

The story was written in the first half. Liverpool went ahead in the 21st minute when Ronald Araujo headed home a Kostas Tsimikas corner delivery, and two minutes later, in the 23rd, Bradley Barcola slotted a low finish for 0-2. Before the half hour mark, Barcola already had his second goal of the night, this time with his left foot, set up by Florian Wirtz, making it 0-3 in the 36th minute. The Austrian side came close to pulling one back before the break, with shots from Danek and Jorgensen that missed the target, but went into the locker room trailing.

The second half brought more of the same. In the 50th minute, Jeremie Frimpong rose to head home Liverpool's fourth, again from a Tsimikas cross. LASK finally got on the scoreboard in the 62nd minute through Robert Ljubicic, who had come on just minutes earlier, assisted by Yvan Dibango. The response did not last long: Liverpool struck back almost immediately as Barcola completed his hat trick in the 65th minute and Lewis Koumas added a sixth in the 71st, also set up by Frimpong.

At that point the match looked headed for a one-sided rout, but LASK refused to fold. Florian Flecker scored twice in the space of three minutes, in the 73rd and 76th, both assisted by Dibango, to make it a final 3-6. It wasn't enough to produce any further late scares, but it did let the home side salvage some pride in the scoreline.

A gap the numbers back up

Beyond the final score, the statistics show just how lopsided Liverpool's control was for long stretches of the match.

Liverpool doubled up LASK in shots and nearly tripled them in possession. Based on our own expected goals estimate calculated from the match's shots, Liverpool generated 3.424 xG against LASK's 2.069, a gap that confirms the visitors' control even though both sides ended up scoring more than that figure would have suggested.

What's striking is that before kickoff we projected something far more even: we gave LASK a 31% chance of winning, 25% for a draw and 44% for a visiting win, with a combined expected goals total of 3.32. The actual result blew past that projection entirely: nine goals were scored in all, nearly triple what was forecast, and Liverpool's win was far more emphatic than the preview had suggested.

What the matchday leaves behind

With this result, Liverpool reach 6 points in their group, with a record of two wins in two matches played, sitting in 3rd place in the table with a goal difference of +4. LASK, meanwhile, remain without a point: they have two losses in two appearances and sit in 33rd place, with a goal difference of -4. The 6-point gap between the two sides in the table reflects fairly well what played out on the field at the Raiffeisen Arena: a Liverpool side that struck early and never let go of control, and a LASK side that, despite dressing up the final score late on, was never really close to competing for the result.