LASK 3-6 Liverpool: Barcola Hat-Trick in Nine-Goal Thriller

Bradley Barcola scored the first three goals of his Liverpool career in one night in Linz, completing a hat-trick as the Reds beat LASK 6-3 in a nine-goal Champions League thriller that was 3-0 at half-time, 6-1 with 18 minutes left — and still somehow finished in chaos.

Liverpool needed a response. Sunday's 3-0 home defeat by Manchester City had deepened the questions around Andoni Iraola's side, and they travelled to Austria amid the doubts over Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo that shadowed the build-up to the LASK game. What followed at the Raiffeisen Arena was the most open, attacking performance of their season — and, late on, a defensive collapse that will stop anyone getting carried away.

Barcola finally arrives

For two months, Barcola's Liverpool story has been his price tag. Signed from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer for a reported fee worth around $150 million, the 24-year-old France international arrived in Linz still waiting for his first goal for the club — the exact dilemma that has followed him and Florian Wirtz all season.

It took him 24 minutes to end the wait, and by then Liverpool were already ahead. Ronald Araujo headed in a Konstantinos Tsimikas corner in the 22nd minute for his own first Liverpool goal, and two minutes later Barcola darted into the six-yard box to finish a Lewis Koumas cutback. As USA TODAY reported, the treble represented Barcola's first three goals with Liverpool — the second, in the 37th minute, was created by Wirtz, a neat link-up between the two men whose output has been questioned more than anyone's.

Six up, then chaos

Jeremie Frimpong headed in another Tsimikas delivery in the 51st minute to make it 4-0, and even after Robert Ljubicic pulled one back for LASK in the 63rd minute, Liverpool's answer was instant. Barcola completed his hat-trick in the 66th minute from a Frimpong pass — the first hat-trick of his senior career — and Frimpong set up Koumas for his first Liverpool goal and a 6-1 lead in the 72nd minute.

Then the game lost its shape. Substitute Florian Flecker scored in the 74th and 77th minutes, both created by Yvan Dibango, to cut the deficit to 6-3, and a match Liverpool had controlled for over an hour ended with the home crowd dreaming of the most absurd comeback of the season. The full goal list on Sky Sports tells the story of a night neither defence will want to watch back.

There was also a worry amid the goals: Jeremy Jacquet requested a substitution just after the hour and was replaced by Virgil van Dijk, with Joe Gomez also coming on for Araujo. No diagnosis has been reported, and Liverpool will hope it was precautionary on a night when the result, at least, was already close to settled.

So what: relief, six points — and Brentford

The consequences cut both ways. Liverpool have six points from two Champions League games and sit in a strong early position in the league phase, and Barcola's hat-trick changes his story overnight: a winger who was being judged as an invoice is now being judged as a match-winner, and Wirtz creating his second goal is exactly the partnership Iraola has been asking people to trust.

But conceding three times to LASK — two of them in three minutes, from crosses Liverpool failed to defend — is the part of this night that travels. Brentford away on Saturday is a far sterner test of control than an Austrian side that had lost its league-phase opener, and Iraola cannot afford for his team's European release to become another Premier League hangover. The Jacquet situation only adds to a defensive picture that already looked thin.

Beyond the Final Whistle: This was the night Barcola stopped being a transfer fee and started being a Liverpool player — a first senior hat-trick, three different kinds of finish, and a performance that finally matched the money. But do not let the six goals hide the three: a side that switches off at 6-1 in Linz will switch off somewhere it costs them far more. Liverpool's attack has woken up. Their defending has not.

Was this the turning point for Barcola and Wirtz at Liverpool, or just a wild night against weak opposition? Tell us in the comments.