‘Practice makes perfect’ – so the saying goes. When Phillipe Coutinho bamboozled Guillermo Varela and chipped David de Gea from an acute angle to score Liverpool’s equaliser against Manchester United in the Europa League, the footballing world was lauding the Brazilian’s ingenuity.
However, as this video shows, Phillipe Coutinho has been practising this moment from a long time ago. The Brazilian spent his first few years in Europe at Inter Milan, after leaving his childhood club of Vasco da Gama in Brazil in July 2010. Coutinho made an immediate impact at Inter Milan under Rafa Benitez, but faded away after a bright start.
The Brazilian was sent away on loan to RCD Espanyol where he spent the 2011/12 season, and returned to Inter only to be sold to Liverpool for a bargain price of £8.5 million.
The above footage was taken in a 2012 Inter training session, when Coutinho’s stock at the Italian club was rather low. The Brazilian receives the ball on the right edge of the box, and fools one defender with a flurry of stepovers and a late change in direction, before swivelling his hips to burst past another defender closing him down.
As a result, Coutinho is one-on-one with the keeper, albeit from a narrow angle, but does not let that deter him. Despite still running at speed, the Brazilian stabs a toe under the ball as the keeper charges at him to close him down, which results in the ball looping above the keeper and into the net, rather eerily similar to his goal for Liverpool last night.
The stage however, was markedly different, as Liverpool and Manchester United clashed in Europe for only the second time, with Coutinho’s bamboozling of De Gea earning the Reds a vital away goal and eventually, the victory. The Brazilian can now consider himself a bonafide world-class star in football.
