On the eve of Liverpool’s meeting with LASK, coach Andoni Iraola was repeatedly asked about the fate of Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola. Given their prices, the pressure was on both to start delivering after shaky starts to their individual campaigns. Iraola, as most coaches would do, stood by his players and insisted that he trusted them “100%.” Iraola insisted the focus was on collective rather than individual statistics, but there is no denying that when you spend such eye-watering sums – £116m on Wirtz and £123m on Barcola – you want those players to win games. Wirtz produced an excellent display in the Austrian city of Linz as Liverpool won 6-3, with an assist to show for his efforts. However, this was a night where the headlines belonged to Barcola, who in his 238th career appearance for club and country combined, scored his first hat-trick. And it was those three goals that proved to be the difference as Liverpool returned to winning ways after their 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday. The truth is that the 24-year-old could have scored more due to his quality, but he did enough to take the ball home after two good shots with his right and left foot, followed by a touch after the break. And just over 24 hours after defending his players from those pre-match questions, Iraola spoke with a smile on his face. “I’m very happy for Bradley,” Iraola said. “Yesterday you asked me if I wasn’t meeting the numbers and [the same with] Florian and I think they both played very, very well today. I think they made the difference.” Bradley was a threat, always one-on-one. [and] certainly behind. It helped us a lot to control the game, to find our pockets. I am and happy for both of them. “I think because of their confidence it’s very good. I think now they feel that we trust them a lot. I think it’s going to be very good, very good for them.” On what it could mean for Barcola, Iraola added: “I think he has to enjoy this.” [as] Scoring a hat-trick in the Champions League is always very difficult. “Even yesterday in training I could feel that he was very animated. Sometimes you feel these things [are going to happen]. We felt he was in a good place before the game.” Barça now hopes to show that level in the Premier League, starting with a visit to Brentford on Saturday.
