A Ballon d’Or winner was among the many players lauding Bradley Barcola on Instagram after the Liverpool winger’s hat-trick against LASK on Wednesday.
The Frenchman went into the game having yet to score for his new club after six appearances since his big-money move from Paris Saint-Germain, but he shook off any worries about a slow start by smashing three goals past the Austrian side.
Andoni Iraola spoke of how he felt from Tuesday’s training session that the 24-year-old had a big performance coming just around the corner, and the £106m signing duly delivered.
Barcola lauded after hat-trick v LASK
After the match in Linz, Barcola took to Instagram with a series of images from Wednesday evening, including one of him holding the UEFA Player of the Match statuette.
Unsurprisingly, a horde of his Liverpool teammates flooded the replies with comments of appreciation, as did a few of his former colleagues from PSG, including Ousmane Dembele.
The 2025 Ballon d’Or winner commented ‘mon chouchou’ (‘my favourite’) alongside three heart-eyes emojis as he lauded his fellow France forward.
(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
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Is this lift-off for Barcola at Liverpool?
Having not posted a single goal contribution in his first six games for Liverpool, some pundits were already beginning to question whether Barcola is destined to be an expensive flop.
Notwithstanding the quality of the opposition, the winger showed on Wednesday that he can be a talismanic figure in the Reds’ attack, and he stepped up massively on a night when we were without Cody Gakpo and Alexander Isak in the forward line.
The challenge for the 24-year-old now will be to prove that he can become a consistent goalscorer in the Premier League, and he goes into the match against Brentford on Saturday buoyant after his hat-trick in Austria.
It’s unclear as to whether the Dutch and Swedish attackers will be fit in time for the weekend fixture, and if that game comes too soon for them, Iraola will again be counting on Barcola to pick up where he left off in Linz.
Hopefully this is simply the start of a legendary Liverpool career for the club’s second-most expensive signing of all time.