Cody Gakpo scored twice as Liverpool qualified as Group E winners in the Europa League.
The task was simple for Liverpool: beat LASK and hope Toulouse fail to beat Union Saint-Gilloise. This was required for the Reds to win the group and advance to the round of 16 of the Europa League. Second-place in the group sets up a knock-out round play-off against one of the eight sides to drop down from the Champions League.
Jurgen Klopp opted not to start some big names such as Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister – who were all named on the Liverpool bench on Thursday night.
It didn’t take long for the Reds to get going, with Luis Diaz scoring a header inside twelve minutes. Cody Gakpo quickly doubled Liverpool’s lead as he tapped home after Mohamed Salah’s floated cross into the six-yard box.
LASK offered little going forward and were lucky the score remained at two-nil by the interval, with Kostas Tsimikas hitting the crossbar and Harvey Elliott having chances go amiss.
Early in the second half, the visitors were only LASK-ing (apologies) for more trouble as goalkeeper Tobias Lawal brought down Gakpo in the box. The referee did not hesitate awarding the penalty kick. Salah stepped up and netted his 199th Liverpool goal.
Trent Alexander-Arnold appeared from the substitutes’ bench and delivered a sumptuous pass into the feet of Gakpo, who made no mistake cutting back and finishing coolly.
The referee blew the whistle just seconds later, with Liverpool not just through the knock-out stages, but to the round of 16 as Group E winners after Toulouse drew 0-0.
With Manchester United and West Ham United either side of their final Europa League group stage fixture, Jurgen Klopp can afford to rotate safe in the knowledge that first place has been secured.
Liverpool’s next foray will be when they welcome Fulham to Anfield on Sunday, 3 December. Kick-off at 2pm.
Liverpool team: Kelleher, Gomez, Konate (Alexander-Arnold 56), Quansah, Tsimikas (Chambers 82), Gravenberch (Bradley 82), Endo, Elliott, Salah (Jones 55), Gakpo, Diaz (Nunez 56).
LASK team: Lawal, Ziereis, Andrade, Talovyerov (Havel 61), Stojkovic (Flecker 61), Horvath, Ljubic, Bello (Renner 61), Zulj, Ljubibic (Mustapha 61 (Kone 74)), Usor.
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