LASK stun Sporting 3-2 in Lisbon for first Champions League win
Champions League newcomers LASK beat Sporting Lisbon 3-2 to collect their first points, handing the Portuguese side their first defeat of the season. Coach Kuehbauer hailed one of his team's best displays.
Archive image · Photo: Footballnerd2007 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Austrian club LASK produced an upset in their first Champions League campaign, winning 3-2 at Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday in the third round of the league phase to earn their first points and first victory in the competition. LASK fell behind early at the Estadio Jose Alvalade when Luis Suarez converted a disputed fifth-minute penalty that the video assistant referee left unchanged. Christoph Lang equalized after a turnover in the 15th minute.
The visitors struck twice in quick succession after the break, with Sasa Kalajdzic scoring in the 63rd minute and Krystof Danek in the 68th, both after winning the ball back. Suarez's 89th-minute goal came too late for Sporting. LASK also had to replace goalkeeper Lukas Jungwirth with Tobias Schuetzenauer after a collision with Suarez. It was the first defeat of the season for Sporting, who had beaten Galatasaray and Lens. LASK had lost 1-0 at AEK Athens and 6-3 at home to Liverpool and now sit 24th, in the playoff places.
"That was one of our best performances," LASK coach Dietmar Kuehbauer said, according to oe24. On the goalkeeper change he said: "He wanted to play on, but the doctor's decision was the right one." Kalajdzic criticized the referee: "The referee was not really in form today, that was no penalty." Scorer Lang said: "A dream that is coming true." Sporting coach Rui Borges said: "We lost the ball three times and conceded three goals." LASK host bottom side Slovan Bratislava, still without a point, on Nov. 3.