A Night In Austria That Could Define Lewis Koumas’s Season

Six goals away from home in the Champions League will always grab the headlines, and rightly so, but the story we keep coming back to from Liverpool’s trip to LASK is a smaller one tucked inside that scoreline. Lewis Koumas has spent much of this season on the fringes of the squad, the kind of player whose minutes have mostly come in cup ties or the closing stages of games already settled. On Wednesday night he finally got a proper opportunity in Europe, starting from the first whistle, and he made sure he did not let it slip through his fingers.

From The Periphery To A Champions League Goal

Koumas was involved early, playing a part in the build-up that led to Liverpool’s opening goal before Ronald Araujo headed home from a Kostas Tsimikas corner in the 22nd minute. Two minutes later he and Rio Ngumoha combined to tee up Bradley Barcola for the second, and by the 72nd minute he had one of his own, finishing off a Jeremie Frimpong cross to make it four on the night and claim his first Champions League goal in the process.

Asked about it afterwards, Koumas kept his answer simple. “To get the chance is one thing and then to take it is another,” he said, and it is hard to find a neater summary of where he currently stands in his development. Plenty of promising young players get handed minutes. Far fewer of them turn those minutes into goals and assists against continental opposition, on a difficult away ground, in front of a watching manager who still has to make hard selection calls every week.

Barcola’s Hat-trick And Frimpong’s Afternoon To Remember

Koumas was far from the only name in lights. Barcola scored three times, adding a second from a Florian Wirtz pass in the 37th minute before completing his hat-trick late on, and Frimpong finished with a goal and two assists of his own, heading in a Tsimikas cross to make it four before setting up both of Liverpool’s late goals. It was the kind of collective attacking display that makes a six-goal away win in Europe look almost routine, even though performances like that are anything but.

Liverpool had arrived in Austria on the back of a chastening 3-0 defeat at Manchester City, and results like this one tend to say more about a squad’s character than any amount of pre-match analysis ever could. A response was needed, and it arrived in some style, with five different attacking contributors getting on the scoresheet or the assist column across the ninety minutes.

A Reminder That Defending Still Needs Work

LASK did pull two goals back in the second half, a reminder that Liverpool’s defensive issues this season have not vanished just because the attack is firing on all cylinders. Six goals papered over plenty of cracks, and whoever is picking the side for Saturday’s trip to Brentford will know that conceding three against less fancied opposition in Austria is not something to brush aside, even against the backdrop of a comfortable away win.

Still, this was a night for the attacking players to enjoy, and Koumas in particular. A goal, an assist, and a full ninety minutes in a Champions League away win represents about as strong a case as a young player can make for himself in a single evening. His own words afterwards captured the moment better than any analysis could: the opportunity had arrived, and he made sure he took it. If Iraola needed any extra reason to keep trusting him with minutes, Koumas just handed him one on a plate.