Philippe Coutinho stars for Bayern Munich with an assist and his first goal in the Bundesliga against FC Koln earlier in the evening.
Philippe Coutinho was known as the little magician in Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp had promised him a statue had he stayed. However, the Brazilian chose the lure of a Champions League trophy over the red side of Merseyside and joined Barcelona.
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Confusion remained who he had come in to replace. Andre Iniesta or Neymar? In the end he replaced neither as a loss of form so he become a liability Barcelona wanted to rid themselves off. Ironically the club he left in search of Champions league glory won the European championship.
Liverpool did not need Coutinho anymore and it seemed that a career full of promise was destined to fail. However, Bayern Munich came to his rescue when they offered to take the Brazilian on loan. Barcelona more than willing to ship him off. Perhaps even a little disappointed that the deal was not permanent.
However, Philippe Coutinho took the task presented ahead of him as a challenge and took it head on. The Brazilian performed well in the pre-season friendlies and was even considered the man of the match by some media outlets on his first start against Red Star Belgrade.
Coutinho was unfortunate to have his backheel strike ruled out in the match. However, there were no such worries in this match as he took the game by the scruff of its neck and put it in Bayern’s favour. Bayern.
Philippe Coutinho stars for Bayern Munich with an assist and his first goal in the Bundesliga
Lewandowski opened the account for Bayern Munich in the 3rd minute itself after Joshua Kimmich and Coutinho brilliantly combined to set up the goal. Lewandowski would score another goal 3 minute after half-time to double their lead.
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In between the first and second, Coutinho was presented with an opportunity to open his account. He almost took it if not for a very unfortunate miss.
However, he would make no such mistake when taking the penalty in the 62nd minute.
A special mention has to go out for Lewandowski. The striker didn’t stand in Coutinho’s way of his first goal despite being on a hat-trick.
Just when you thought he was done for the day, Coutinho then set up Bayern’s 4th goal with an assist to Ivan Perisic who made no mistake in finding the back of the net.
This was not the magical performance Coutinho was linked with back in his Liverpool days. However, these are good signs that he is slowly getting his confidence back and may soon return to more rewarding times.
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