Andoni Iraola’s side took a first-half lead in Austria, through Ronald Araujo’s first goal for the club, when he headed in from Kostas Tsimikas’ corner.

Two minutes later, Barcola scored his first Liverpool goal since joining from PSG for £123m in the summer.

Lewis Koumas teed up Barcola after Rio Ngumoha made a brilliant run down the right and the Frenchman finished wonderfully with his right-foot.

Barcola – who failed to score or assist in any of his first six games – scored another just before half-time after he was played through by Florian Wirtz, before Jeremie Frimpong made it four with a header from a Tsimikas cross after the break.

LASK pulled one back through Robert Ljubicic but three minutes later, Barcola completed his hat-trick when he got on the end of Frimpong’s ball, much to the delight of Liverpool’s travelling support.

Lewis Koumas then got in on the act as Frimpong got another assist but the home side restored some pride through two goals in quick succession from Florian Flecker to make it 6-3 on the night.

Iraola – who made four changes from Sunday’s defeat at Manchester City, including resting Virgil van Dijk – has now seen his side win two out of two in the Champions League.

Liverpool travel to Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday before taking on Villarreal at Anfield next Tuesday.

Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo both struck in the space of three first-half minutes before Mohamed Salah’s penalty after the break and Gakpo’s second late on in a straightforward win.

Toulouse’s failure to beat Union St-Gilloise ensures Liverpool cannot be caught at the top of Group E.

The Reds go through to the knockouts and avoid February’s play-off round.

Liverpool had total control inside 15 minutes following a quickfire double.

First, Diaz sprayed a ball wide to Joe Gomez before running around the back of the defence into the area to meet the right-back’s cross and steer his header into the net.

Shortly after, a well-worked move between Diaz, Salah and Gakpo around the LASK box was finished from close range by the Dutchman.

Liverpool missed several first-half chances to put the game to bed, but had to wait until LASK keeper Tobias Lawal felled Gakpo in the area on 48 minutes, allowing Salah to slam in the third, with Gakpo adding a fourth following Trent Alexander-Arnold’s clever pass.

“Two top results for us tonight in the group,” said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. “A lot of positives from the game.

“This game should have been put to bed [before half-time], we should have finished it off but we didn’t. The third goal just after half-time was helpful.

“We worked for the clean sheet, which is what we wanted, so a top result and really good performance.”