Yvan Dibango made Champions League history by providing three assists in 14 minutes, despite LASK Linz suffering a 6-3 home defeat by Liverpool on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old Cameroon left-back created all three of his side’s goals, becoming only the third African player to register three assists in a single Champions League match, according to Opta. He joins Samuel Eto’o and Achraf Hakimi in achieving the feat.
Liverpool had established a 4-0 lead before Dibango began LASK Linz’s comeback in the 63rd minute. He picked out Robert Ljubicic to get the Austrian side on the scoresheet, then delivered a cross for Florian Flecker to head home 11 minutes later.
Dibango completed his hat-trick of assists in the 77th minute, setting up Flecker again. The sequence gave him his first goal contributions in the Champions League and earned him a place alongside two of Africa’s most prominent footballers in the competition’s record books.
Eto’o recorded his three assists for FC Barcelona against Levski Sofia in 2006, while Hakimi reached the same mark with Borussia Dortmund against Atletico de Madrid in 2018.
For Dibango, the performance could prove significant beyond the statistic. The defender, who was born in Yaounde, had not yet established himself as a regular starter for LASK Linz this season.
He had featured in only four of the club’s first eight Austrian league matches, starting just one of them. His display against Liverpool, however, showed the attacking influence he can provide from the left side, even as his team conceded six goals.
The result leaves LASK Linz with little to celebrate from a difficult night, but Dibango’s contribution may alter his position within the squad. His ability to create three goals against an opponent of Liverpool’s calibre could strengthen his claim for a more consistent place in the starting XI.
The next question is whether the historic performance will persuade his manager to put greater trust in him and make him a long-term fixture in the Austrian club’s line-up.
Dibango’s surname also carries a familiar resonance in Cameroon because of the legendary musician Manu Dibango, but it was on the European football stage that the defender made his name on this occasion.