Philippe Coutinho rolls back the years with magical moment reminiscent of Liverpool peak
It has been a long time since Philippe Coutinho was at his peak for Liverpool. Those last six months in particular in 2017 were just scintillating but after he joined Barcelona for around $190m (£143m/€172m), his career swiftly went downhill.
The move to the Camp Nou failed spectacularly. Loans and permanent moves elsewhere didn't work out for the Brazillian and Coutinho is now back in his homeland again having spent part of last season in Qatar.
While things have gone differently since he left Liverpool than Coutinho would have liked, there is still a silky player in there. And that was shown this weekend as he pulled off a lovely dribbling move before being hacked down.
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In a clip that has been shared many times on social media, the ex-Liverpool playmaker does a 180-degree turn twice with his foot over the top of the ball, sitting one defender down before putting the ball through the legs of another. He puts the ball past a third before he is fouled.
Coutinho had come off the bench in the second half against Palmeires. A first-half goal from Jose Manuel Lopez, though, was enough to consign Vasco de Gama to a defeat despite the silky skills of the substitute.
Liverpool.com says: Coutinho was a delight to watch at his best and this was the kind of confident move he was pulling off regularly at Anfield when he was at his peak. That is a long time ago now, however. Things could have gone very differently had Coutinho not forced through the move to Barcelona. His transfer funded the moves for Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk, for one thing.