Bradley Barcola got off the mark for Liverpool in style with a Champions League hat-trick in a 6-3 win against LASK in Austria.
The France international winger did not score in his first five appearances for the Reds after arriving from Paris Saint-Germain in deal that could rise to £123m.
But the 24-year-old bagged his first senior hat-trick of his career as Liverpool ran riot against the Austrian champions.
Defender Ronald Araujo also scored his first Liverpool goal with the first of the night, while Jeremie Frimpong and Lewis Koumas were also on target for Andoni Iraola’s side.
Welsh forward Koumas, who started in place of the injured Alexander Isak, scored his first Liverpool goal in two-and-a-half years after the 21-year-old had two goals ruled out earlier.
While Liverpool’s forward line threatened all night, there was sloppiness at the back in the closing stages and Iraola will be disappointed to have conceded three for the second game in a row.
But a second consecutive win in the Champions League, following the opening victory over Atletico Madrid, got Iraola’s side back on track following Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.
How Barcola completed his first career hat-trick
Ironically, the standout winger on the night was arguably Rio Ngumoha, with the 18-year-old tormenting LASK throughout with his direct dribbling and trickery out wide.
But it was Barcola who produced the clinical touches in the area, adding to his electric bursts of speed and movement behind the LASK backline.
Ngumoha was the spark for Barcola’s first Liverpool goal, working his way into the box before a clever flick from Koumas allowed Barcola to sweep a first-time finish into the far corner.
Bradley Barcola gets off the mark for Liverpool with an instinctive finish 🔥
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Barcola’s second was created by Florian Wirtz, who responded to the criticism of his performance against City with a piercing through ball between LASK defenders and into Barcola’s feet.
After his earlier strike, two quick touches from the former PSG winger displayed his confidence and eye for goal, with a low left-footed finish slotted into the bottom corner.
Barcola’s third to complete the hat-trick was the simplest of the three, owing to being in the right place at the right time after Ngumoha had slipped in Frimpong to square across goal.
Partnership building... 👀
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Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola link up for Liverpool’s third 🔥
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Bradley Barcola’s first ever senior hat-trick ⚽️
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He’s been unplayable 🔥
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“I think he played so well today and not just the goals,” Iraola said of Barcola’s performance. “He had more chances to score and he was always a threat attacking the spaces in behind.
“In training sometimes you feel when a player is in the zone, and fortunately tonight for us he has shown the level that he has.”
Koumas was rewarded for another committed performance leading the line and the academy product showed how much a Champions League goal meant for the Reds with his celebration.
“He has to enjoy it because he deserves it,” Iraola said. “I think he scored two disallowed goals which is unlucky for him but he kept pressing, making the runs in behind and doing his job.
“I think it’s fair that he score his goal and can have his moment of celebration with the supporters.”
In all, it added up to a pleasing attacking performance for Iraola, with Ngumoha and Koumas again impressing in the absence of Isak and Cody Gakpo and Barcola and Wirtz making impacts too.
“I’m very happy with the performance,” Iraola added. “Today I think we were very aggressive with the ball. Sometimes you talk aggressiveness without the ball but I’m talking about with the ball.
“I think we took good positions, we moved the ball well, attacked the spaces well.”
How much of a worry were the LASK goals?
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk was given a rare evening off, with left-back Kostas Tsimikas wearing the armband in his absence and Araujo and Jeremy Jacquet starting at centre-back.
Jacquet continued his excellent start to life at Liverpool with another impressing while Araujo’s first goal, rising from a corner to head in the delivery from Tsimikas, was a bonus as well.
Where it went wrong defensively for Liverpool, having largely dominated LASK from the outset, was when Iraola made changes to the backline while the Reds were leading 4-0.
It is unusual to see a centre-back pair swapped mid-game but Van Dijk and Joe Gomez were brought on for Jacquet and Araujo in a double-change on the hour.
Liverpool were immediately caught cold as Robert Ljubicic pulled one back. Then, after Barcola and Koumas had stretched Liverpool’s lead to 6-1, Florian Flecker struck twice for the hosts.
Both goals looked preventable, sure, and Alisson conceded three times from four shots on target.
But given the game had been won and Liverpool were already looking towards Saturday’s trip to Brentford in the Premier League, they won’t be too much of a concern.
“It’s probably the reason why the manager shouldn’t change both centre-backs!” Iraola said.
“But we were already winning 4-0 and you have to think about the next game and saving the legs of the players. We didn’t defend properly at the end of the game."