Fully deserved! Strong LASK secures first CL win at Sporting

LASK gets on the scoreboard for the first time on Matchday 3 of the UEFA Champions League - and they do it in style!

In Lisbon, at Sporting Clube de Portugal, the Linz side secured a highly deserved 3-2 away victory.

And they did it despite much going against the Austrian champions as early as the fourth minute: Ljubicic's tackle on Irankunda was unsuccessful, the Australian hooked him as he was taking off – a ridiculous penalty for the Portuguese, but it stood and was converted by Suarez to make it 1-0, even though Lukas Jungwirth had gone the right way (5.).

However, LASK showed no signs of being shocked; the penalty remained the hosts' only shot on target for a long time. Instead, Christoph Lang had the perfect response ready: Ljubicic to Jörgensen, who played it into the middle, and Lang rightly opted for a quick finish against three defenders to equalize at 1-1 (15.).

LASK Clinical on the Counter

Araujo (38.) and Lang (43.) still had top chances for their respective teams before halftime, and at the break, the score was a largely fair draw.

However, that changed in the second half – and LASK took control of the game. First, there was another moment of fright: Jungwirth had to challenge Suarez and was hit by the Colombian's knee. After several minutes of dizziness, the goalkeeper wanted to continue but was replaced by Tobias Schützenauer on the advice of the doctors (52.).

Before he was called into action for the first time, it was already 3-1: Ljubicic launched the counter-attack, waited for the right moment, and passed to Kalajdzic. The ÖFB striker finished flat and clinically into the far corner (63.).

Five minutes later, it was a quick break forward again, this time Adeniran served Danek. He dribbled into the penalty area and had a bit of luck with a deflection on his shot, but the decisive goal was well deserved (68.).

After that, the bewildered Portuguese struggled to get back into the game for a long time but once again benefited from the inferior refereeing performance: Before Suarez's consolation goal (89.), a clear foul on Alessandro Schöpf was not given and also not corrected by VAR, who could still have intervened in the situation.

Ultimately, however, it was a happy end for LASK.

With these three points, LASK climbs to 22nd place; for Sporting, it is the first setback after victories over Galatasaray and away at Lens.