Former Liverpool star Philippe Coutinho rolled back the years with a brilliant long-range strike in his native Brazil – just hours after the Reds defeated Paris Saint-Germain in dramatic circumstances.
Now 32, the ex-Kop hero showed that he has lost none of his prowess when it comes to having an eye for a breathtaking effort on goal as he scored a typical piledriver for Vasco da Gama. Finding himself in acres of space some 35 yards from goal, the veteran curled a beauty of an effort over the flailing opposition goalkeeper, before peeling away in celebration.
The former Anfield ace was the standout performer against Nova Iguacu, also netting a penalty in the 20th minute before his pearler of a strike some 18 minutes later. Teammate Rayan Vitor had opened the scoring for the Rio de Janeiro giants en route to what proved to be a convincing win.
Coutinho gained a reputation for spectacular goals during his five year spell at Anfield before he departed for Barcelona back in 2018. While his former employers went on to win a sweep of major honors including the Premier League and Champions League following that switch, the Brazilian international struggled following his move to Camp Nou.
Following a series of loan moves to Bayern Munich and Aston Villa, he made the permanent move to the Midlands in 2022. After failing to replicate the form he had shown on Merseyside during his previous spell in the English top flight, the creative maestro made a temporary switch back to boyhood club Vasco da Gama in Brazil last year.
Speaking after heading home in 2024, he acknowledged: “Vasco means everything to me when it comes to football. It’s the club that raised me, that gave me the opportunity to become a player. I graduated from the Vasco academy. It prepared me for football and gave me countless opportunities. Vasco for me is a feeling of love.”
(Image: SporTVPremier/X)
Hours prior to Coutinho’s brilliant performance versus Nova Iguacu, old club Liverpool had pulled off a memorable victory over PSG in the first leg of its last-16 tie in the Champions League. Having been under the cosh for much of the game in the French capital, the Reds stunned the home faithful by snatching a late winner through Harvey Elliott.
After coming away from Parc des Princes with a crucial one-goal advantage, the Merseysiders will now be hoping to seal their place in the quaterfinal in the second leg at Anfield. Admitting that a stern test still awaits his team in the return game next week, Liverpool boss Arne Slot said: “If we had a draw, we would have already been the lucky one.
“That is clear for everyone. I think they were the much better team today. Especially in the first half they had a lot of chances, three or four big chances. In the second half, they were still the better team, still had a lot of shots on target but they were mainly from outside the box. I knew before the game, and I saw today again how much quality this team has, and all the individual players have.
“All the shots from outside of the box you see with a certain speed which only comes from top players, that’s why Alisson still had to make some big saves. We were lucky that the goal was fractionally offside in the first half.”
He added: “I was very happy that in difficult circumstances over here the referee was not impressed. That’s not always the situation in away games. Already, in the game we had chances in transition, but we waited until the last moment, and we hurt them.”
