With LASK this Thursday’s visitors to Anfield, Liverpool are looking to strengthen their position at the top of Group E.
Defeat against Toulouse meant that Liverpool can’t secure top spot this week, unless the French side drop points against Union Saint-Gilloise.
They can, though, make sure they get out of the group with a win over LASK.
Liverpool actually went behind in the reverse fixture, but substitutions on the hour mark helped turn the game around, with the Reds eventually running out 3-1 winners.
The state of play
Should Liverpool win and Toulouse fail to beat Union SG, Jurgen Klopp‘s side will win the group.
One point would see the Reds qualify for the knockout stages should Union SG fail to win.
The victory at LASK saw Klopp record his 50th European win as Liverpool manager, a total which exceeded any other Reds boss.
Liverpool have used 25 different players in the four group games so far with only Wataru Endo and Harvey Elliott starting all four. Elliott has played in every minute.
Endo and Elliott are two of the five Reds players to have featured in all four games. The others are Joe Gomez, Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah.
Salah has scored 44 goals in 71 European appearances for Liverpool. He has started only one of the four group games, but has scored twice in his 126 minutes of action.
Going into Matchday 5, no team in the competition has scored more goals than Liverpool. They have 12 along with German clubs Bayer Leverkusen and Freiburg.
Milestones
In all competitions, Liverpool have found the net in each of their last 29 matches. A goal in this game will see them net in 30 in a row for only the third time in their history and the second time under Jurgen Klopp.
They have won all nine home games this season in all competitions – scoring 27 times in the process, while conceding only four.
Liverpool could record a third successive home clean sheet for the first time since October 2022.
The Reds have never before played a European game on this date, November 30.
A bit on the visitors
LASK (full name Linzer Atheletic-Sport-Klub) were founded in 1908 and in 1965 became the first club outside of Vienna to win the Austrian league title.
That was their only championship to date and they also won the cup in the same year – they have not won a major trophy since.
This is LASK’s 15th season of major European competition. They first competed in Europe in the 1963-64 version of the Cup Winners Cup, going out to Dinamo Zagreb.
This will be their 5th European campaign in the last six seasons.
Following their defeat to Liverpool in the group phase, they lost narrowly at Toulouse and also lost their third game at Union SG before winning the return meeting 3-0. They currently have three points and occupy fourth place.
LASK have to win this game to have any chance of finishing in the top two of the group.
Their coach is Thomas Sageder who replaced Dietmar Kuhbauer in July 2023. He is their fifth coach in this decade alone.
This season’s scorers
Liverpool: Salah 12, Jota 8, Nunez 7, Diaz 4, Gakpo 4, Gravenberch 2, Szoboszlai 2, Alexander-Arnold 1, Endo 1, Robertson 1, own goals 3
LASK: Zulj 10, Goiginger 4, Ljubicic 4, Ziereis 3, Flecker 2, Havel 2, Kone 2, Luckeneder 2, Usor 2, Ba 1, Balic 1, Horvath 1, Jovicic 1, Mustapha 1, Stojkovic 1, Talovierov 1
* Stats courtesy of LFC statistician Ged Rea (@ged0407).
