Barcola's hat trick helps Liverpool rout LASK, Feyenoord fights back in Champions League

LINZ, Austria (AP) — Bradley Barcola scored a hat trick as Liverpool coasted to a 6-3 win at Austria’s LASK in the Champions League on Wednesday.

They were his first goals for the club since joining from European champion Paris Saint-Germain in the offseason.

Ronald Araújo also got his first Liverpool goal as he broke the deadlock with a header from a corner, less than two minutes before Barcola scored in the 24th from a lay-off by Lewis Koumas.

Ryan Gravenberch struck the post before Barcola got his second in the 37th, finishing with aplomb after being played through by Florian Wirtz.

Jeremie Frimpong, one of the smallest players on the field, headed Liverpool’s fourth in off the right post in the 51st.

Robert Ljubičić pulled a goal back in the 63rd, a minute after going on as a substitute, before Frimpong gave Barcola a simple tap-in to complete his hat trick in the 66th.

Koumas was left free to get Liverpool’s sixth six minutes later – it was the 21-year-old forward's first Liverpool goal.

But Florian Flecker – another LASK substitute – got the biggest cheer when he scored his team’s second with a diving header in the 74th, four minutes before he got another to complete the scoring.

Liverpool coach Andoni Iraola dropped Virgil van Dijk to the substitutes’ bench with French defender Jérémy Jacquet starting. The Dutch star replaced Jacquet for the last half hour or so.

Anis Hadj Moussa scored twice as Dutch leader Feyenoord came from behind to beat visiting Como 3-2 in the other early game.

Assane Diao gave Como the lead with the team’s first shot in the 18th minute after outmuscling Javi López on the right and firing inside the far post.

But Gjivai Zechiël replied two minutes later with a spectacular shot, and Algeria winger Hadj Moussa scored early in the second half before sealing the result in the 82nd.

Tasos Douvikas scored Como's consolation in stoppage time.

Scandal-hit Manchester City was hosting fellow big spender PSG later for its first European game since being charged with financial rule-breaking over nearly a decade in the Premier League.

Also later, Real Madrid was visiting Roma for coach José Mourinho’s return, Bodø/Glimt was playing Borussia Dortmund, Real Betis was entertaining Porto, Fenerbahçe was visiting Aston Villa, Stuttgart traveled to Slovan Bratislava, and Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk was hosting AEK Athens at Chelsea’s ground in London.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Como's Kaiki Bruno fouls Feyenoord's Anis Hadj Moussa during the UEFA Champions League soccer match betweem Feyenoord and Como in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Post)

Como's Kaiki Bruno fouls Feyenoord's Anis Hadj Moussa during the UEFA Champions League soccer match betweem Feyenoord and Como in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Post)

Liverpool's Bradley Barcola, celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between LASK and Liverpool in Linz, Austria, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Liverpool's Bradley Barcola, left, celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between LASK and Liverpool in Linz, Austria, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Liverpool's Bradley Barcola, celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between LASK and Liverpool in Linz, Austria, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City lawmakers plan to ban horse-drawn carriages from Central Park, ending their more than 150-year run as an iconic, old-timey tourist attraction, following decades of opposition from animal welfare activists and the death of a teenage tourist last spring.

The City Council is expected to approve a bill next week that would end the rides by 2028. Three consecutive mayors had called for an end to the carriage rides because of safety concerns, only to have lawmakers yank back the reins.

A spokesperson for Julie Menin, the council speaker, confirmed the incoming vote and said the proposal had enough support to pass. Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office said he had reached a deal with the speaker on the legislation.

“The horse carriage industry is coming to an end in New York City,” Mamdani said in a social media post.

The latest push for a ban started in June, when 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan, visiting the city from India, died after jumping from a runaway horse carriage during a ride with family members. His death, which appeared to be the first fatality in a horse carriage accident since they were introduced in Central Park, reignited the debate over whether carriages, a romantic throwback to the city's past, have a place in a modern metropolis.

Mahajan's family has appeared at City Hall, in person and through videoconference calls from India, begging the city to finally end the rides.

“We are shattered, our whole family shattered. The pain does not go away,” his father, Deepak Mahajan, told city council members via a videocall during a hearing for the bill last summer, saying his son leapt from the carriage to try and help his mother, who was flung from her seat, after the horse bolted. “Every morning we wake up and think of nothing but the loss of our son.”

For decades, animal welfare activists and other critics have decried the carriage industry, arguing horses shouldn't be hauling tourists around busy streets and Central Park while having to navigate bustling traffic and gawking passersby. In the past, horses have collapsed, gotten startled and run off, hitting cars or other objects, with each accident resulting in fresh calls for a ban.

“The tragic and preventable death of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan made clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable. Horse-drawn carriages have long been part of New York City’s history, but in an increasingly busy Central Park, this tradition has become a growing public safety liability,” Menin said in a statement.

The industry and its supporters have long cast the rides as a way for visitors to experience the New York they know from classic movies and television.

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse danced into one of the carriages in “The Band Wagon.” Robert Redford and Jane Fonda rode one in “Barefoot in the Park.” Macaulay Culkin escaped bandits in a carriage in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”

“Taking a horse and carriage ride in New York City is one of the most iconic things to do in New York City and people from all over the world know about us and travel to New York to go to a carriage ride in New York,” Conor McHugh, a longtime carriage driver, told the Council earlier this year.

Efforts to close down the industry have been met with pushback from unions and influential supporters, often resulting in tiresome political fights that have seen mayors throw up their hands over nagging worries about putting carriage drivers out of work and what to do with the horses if they can no longer work.

Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen said the Council's bill has “no meaningful economic relief for workers” and that Menin “used the tragic death of a tourist to contrive a public safety crisis.”

“This is disgraceful political opportunism, and Zohran should not simply go along with it, particularly when immigrant families’ livelihoods are being destroyed. This entire situation is reprehensible,” he said in a statement.

The proposal as written would require the mayor's office to develop a workforce transition plan for drivers, and includes a measure that would allow the city to consider some kind of compensation for industry workers. Carriage owners could not sell their horses off for slaughter, according to the bill's language, which requires that horses be disposed of in a “humane manner.”

“I think we have a civic responsibility to ensure that we are not leaving anybody out to dry,” Mamdani told reporters Wednesday.

The mayor's predecessor, Eric Adams, called for ending the industry during the waning days of his administration, but the proposal went nowhere. The mayor before that, Bill de Blasio, had pledged to eliminate the rides on day one of his administration but abandoned the crusade after heavy opposition from unions and a media blitz involving actor Liam Neeson.

Over the years, the city has placed various safety regulations around the industry, including a requirement that the horses get at least five weeks of vacation a year outside of city limits with daily access to a pasture. The horses are inspected by a veterinarian twice a year, and the maximum age they can work at is 26, according to city regulations. And they don't work when it is hotter than 89 degrees.

A horse-drawn carriage takes passengers for a loop through Central Park as joggers run, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Horse-drawn carriages offer trips through through Central Park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

An ice cream vendor peers from his food truck where horse drawn carriages wait for passengers at the entrance to Central Park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A horse-drawn carriage takes passengers for a loop through Central Park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A carriage horse that takes people on rides through Central Park drinks water at an entrance to the park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

FILE - Horse dawn carriages gather at an entrance to Central Park in New York on Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - A carriage horse is covered with a blanket, waiting for customers on Central Park South in New York on Jan. 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - A horse dawn carriage takes passengers for a loop through Central Park in New York on Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - A horse and carriage are seen in the snow in Central Park on Jan. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)