LASK won 3-2 at Sporting on Wednesday night, scoring three times in the second half to take their first points of the Champions League league phase away from home.
Sporting went ahead after five minutes. Luis Suárez scored from the penalty spot. LASK levelled in the 15th minute when Christoph Lang scored from a Kasper Jörgensen assist, and the game stayed 1-1 until after the break.
Three goals in the second half
Sasa Kalajdzic put LASK in front in the 63rd minute, set up by Robert Ljubicic. Five minutes later Krystof Danek made it 3-1, with Samuel Adeniran providing the assist.
Suárez gave Sporting hope with his second goal of the night in the 89th minute, but the home side could not find another.
It was a disciplined result for LASK only in the sense of the scoreline. They collected five yellow cards: Lang (33rd minute), Sascha Horvath (45th), Kalajdzic (72nd), Tobias Schützenauer (89th) and Danek (90+1). Sporting were booked twice, Issa Doumbia in the 64th minute and João Simões in the 65th.
What the numbers say
Sporting dominated the ball and the shot count but not the target. They had 62% possession to LASK's 38% and 15 total shots to 11. They also won more corners, six to four.
LASK were far more accurate. They put seven shots on target to Sporting's four, and only two of their 11 attempts went off target, against six of Sporting's 15. Sporting had five shots blocked, LASK two.
LASK also committed 22 fouls to Sporting's 10. Offsides were close, with Sporting flagged three times and LASK twice.
Sporting came in having beaten Galatasaray 3-1 and won 2-0 at Lens. LASK had lost 1-0 at AEK Athens and 6-3 at home to Liverpool, so the result was a clear change of fortune.
What it means in the table
Sporting stay 12th in the league-phase table with six points from three games and a goal difference of +3. They have won two of their three matches. The top eight go straight through to the Round of 16, and ninth to 24th enter the knockout play-offs. PSG lead the table with nine points from nine.
LASK move up to 24th, the last knockout play-off place, with three points and a goal difference of -3. Slovan Bratislava are bottom in 36th with no points.
The two clubs' most recent previous meetings were also split, with Sporting winning 2-1 in October 2019 and LASK winning 3-0 that December.
MFF's match model had predicted a 2-0 Sporting win, giving the hosts a 77% chance of victory against 9% for LASK. It got this one wrong.
Add MFF as a preferred source on GoogleSee our stats first in Google's Top Stories and AI answers