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Key events
Genius from Wirtz!
11 min: Wirtz, cutting in from the left, chops between two Lask defenders and fires a near-post shot at goal. Jungwirth just about keeps it out, the ball just failing to squeeze under the goalkeeper’s legs.
9 min: Contrary to pre-match thoughts from TNT, Barcola is the one playing left wing for Liverpool, with Ngumoha on the right.
7 min: Chance for Lask and Jorgensen! Liverpool fail to clear their lines from a corner with the ball falling to the right-wing back, but Jorgensen laces a fierce shot just a couple of yards over! Lask are playing the better stuff, so far.
6 min: Koumas beats the offside trap, rounds the advancing keeper but is forced wide and can’t squeeze a finish into the open goal from an acute angle, with Mbuyamba doing well to recover and intercept!
5 min: Lask mount their first serious attack and a dangerous cross to the back post is well defended by Tsimikas, under pressure from Jorgensen.
3 min: Frimpong, who has something to prove since losing his starting place, curls an optimistic shot high and wide with his left foot. One of the worst weak foots in the game, for my money.
2 min: Two minutes played and Lask have not yet had a literal kick. Liverpool seem content to hog the ball and try to take the sting out of the atmosphere. Lask’s fans are lively behind their own goal. This is their first ever home Champions League match, remember.
Peeeeeeeeeeeeep!
We are underway in Austria.
“The game is a two-part puzzle similar to yesterday’s Arsenal v Lille,” emails AnhTuan Nguyen Huynh. “Lask have the first half to do what they need to do while Liverpool’s big guns are on the bench. Lask are going to have their say before Liverpool’s calvary arrives in the second half.”
Here come the teams! Kostas Tsimikas is Liverpool captain for the night! I’m surprised that either Alisson or Gravenberch didn’t get the nod for that.
Lask will play in their third red kit (?!), so Liverpool are wearing their white away number. Bizarre, when both teams could have just worn their home kits. Lask traditionally play in black and white.
Andoni Iraola, Liverpool’s manager, speaks to TNT:
We play every three days so we cannot expect to play every game with the same XI. This is a good opportunity to give Van Dijk a rest.
Koumas and Ngumoha are coming from the academy but they are first-team players. I hope they do well. This is the Champions League, every win is very expensive, especially away from home.
“Should I be the writer of the first Wirtz email then?” asks Graeme Neill. “I think Sunday was when my patience finally went. Up until that point, I figured it would click all of a sudden but now all I can think of is a highly sought after young German player who was seen as a no brainer signing but flopped in the Premier League: Timo Werner.”
“Did you ever notice that if you type ‘Wirtz’ too fast in your keyboard it comes out as ‘Worse’?” quips Peadar de Burca.
Florian Wirtz is a real jugador but really has struggled to show his best form in a Liverpool shirt. This is a big game for the German. If you missed his performance for Germany against Serbia during the international break, you can watch the highlights of his sublime goal and assist here. Woof.
It’s worth remembering Lask’s route to this match. They won the domestic double last season in Austria and came back from four goals down to beat Celtic 5-4 (on aggregate) over two legs in Champions League qualifying. Here is a reminder of that remarkable comeback … and the highlights are here.
In their opening league phase match, a 1-0 defeat to AEK Athens was much more underwhelming.
TNT Sport seem to think it will be Ngumoha, not Barcola, on the left wing for Liverpool. Interesting to see if that is true. Ngumoha was poor on the right wing when I watched him against Newcastle on the opening day and as I mentioned, Barcola has yet to register either an goal or an assist since his move from PSG from the left wing, so makes sense for Iraola to try it the other way around, even if Barcola has traditionally always played his best stuff from the left.
The good news for Lask is that Iraola has rested several first-choice players, with Van Dijk, Kerkez, Mac Allister, Munoz all on the bench. Liverpool have a testing trip to Brentford on Saturday, remember.
The bad news for Lask is that arguably their star man, Moses Usor, is not fit and left out of the squad entirely. The Nigerian winger came off the bench during Lask’s 2-0 defeat to Austrian Bundesliga leaders Rapid Vienna at the weekend but lasted only 12 minutes before he had to be withdrawn again. Lask’s starting left-back, George Bello, was also injured in that match and it is replacement Yvan Dibango, who starts at left-wing back here.
The teams!
Lask (5-3-2): Jungwirth; Jorgensen, Mbuyamba, Alemao, Andrade, Dibango; Danek, Bogarde, Schopf; Lang, Adeniran.
Subs: Schutzenauer, Schillinger, Freckleton, Ljubicic, Kalajdzic, Verhaeghe, Elfadli, Flecker, Kane.
Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Alisson; Frimpong, Araujo, Jacquet, Tsimikas; Gravenberch, Nyoni; Barcola, Wirtz, Ngumoha; Koumas.
Subs: Mamardashvili, Woodman, Gomez, Van Dijk, Kerkez, Mac Allister, Munoz, Chambers, McConnell, Danns, Lambie, Lucky.
Referee: Tobias Stieler (Germany)
Preamble
The only previous time that Liverpool have visited Lask, in the Europa League back in 2023, Jürgen Klopp was still manager of the club and the German put out a largely second-string XI, with Caoimhin Kelleher, Kostas Tsimikas, Harvey Elliott, Steven Bajcetic, Ben Gannon-Doak, Wataru Endo, Darwin Núñez all part of the starting line-up.
At half-time, Lask were 1-0 up and although Núñez scored a penalty early in the second half, it was only after the hour mark – when Klopp brought on Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister – that Liverpool finally wrestled control of the match. Two minutes after those subs, Luis Diaz put Liverpool ahead before another late substitute, Mohamed Salah came off the bench to seal a 3-1 win.
Nearly all of those players (and manager) are unavailable today, either having left the club or sidelined with injury, and Andoni Iraola will surely pick a much stronger XI this time around. Not only because the Spaniard can ill afford a slip up in Austria, but also because Lask are more accomplished since that last Liverpool visit, with the Linz-based club winning the Austrian Bundesliga last season for the first time since 1965. Absences of key personnel – including Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai, his three leading goalscorers – means that Iraola will surely play his best team where he can. Some players, including Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola (the latter without a goal or an assist in six appearances since his £123m arrival from Paris Saint-Germain, or even win possession in the final third) desperately need to play themselves into form if the Reds are to play again in the Champions League next season. Iraola has said he trusts the £100m+ pair, which is at least something.
Liverpool should be wary of striker Christoph Lang, who has started this season like a train with five goals in eight league matches. It would be a big blow for Lask if Moses Usor is not fit – the winger topped both the club’s scoring and assists in their double-winning season last year and scored on his Nigeria debut during the recent international break but is a doubt for this match. Melayro Bogarde, nephew to former Ajax, Barcelona and Chelsea defender Winston Bogarde, is another important cog at the base of Lask’s midfield.
An intriguing kick-off at 5.45pm BST for an intriguing match-up. And one that Liverpool should not take lightly.
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