LASK picked up their first Champions League victory by punishing Sporting CP twice on the break at Alvalade. Saša Kalajdžić gave them the lead in the 63rd minute, and Krystof Daněk followed three minutes later with a near-post finish.
LASK's counterattacking break
The sequence was brutal and simple. Sporting CP had already gone ahead through a fifth-minute Luis Suárez penalty, but the game was level before LASK found their second-half breakaway moments. The visitors turned a turnover into two goals in five minutes, and Alvalade went from control to damage limitation very quickly.
BBC Sport said LASK had lost their previous eight away games in major European competition before this win, which gives the result extra weight. It also came against a Sporting CP side that had won its opening two Champions League games before this defeat.
The goals that changed the night
Kalajdžić's finish matters because it was only his second Champions League appearance for LASK this season. He had only one goal across all competitions before this strike, so the opener came from a player who had not been heavily involved in Europe.
Daněk then added the second three minutes later, and that was the decisive stretch. His near-post finish gave Lask Linz a cushion they did not look like surrendering, and it was the kind of sharp transition football Sporting could not live with once their line was broken.
The job now is to turn one famous away win into something more lasting in the group. Sporting CP vs Lask Linz is still the fixture that defines the moment, but the night already belongs to LASK's two quick counters.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →
