VIDEO: Philippe Coutinho Opens the Scoring as the Reds Lead


Philippe Coutinho Goal vs Everton by LFCmostar

In the build up, we were told that this would be the quietest Merseyside Derby in years — two managers favouring patient, possession based football was sure to take the fire out of the fixture, right? Three goals, a number of yellow cards and a potentially leg breaking tackle on Luis Suarez says otherwise.

Within 20 minutes, we’d seen the ball hit the back of the net three times. Philippe Coutinho opened the scoring with a composed finish after the Everton backline lost him during a Steven Gerrard corner, though that lead wouldn’t last long when only a few minutes later Kevin Mirallas drew level, finishing acrobatically from a Leighton Baines freekick. There were hints of last seasons match at Goodison as both teams turned the tempo down briefly, but a certain Uruguayan would flash a bit of magic to turn the volume back up.

Set-pieces seemed to be the rule of the day and Suarez showed he was a master of them by restoring the Reds lead with a stunning freekick that snuck through the Everton wall and just out of the reach of a sprawling Tim Howard. Mirallas would turn the malice on for the Blue half on with a poorly timed tackle on Suarez that sent the physio’s on the pitch and should have seen him exit it, but Phil Dowd would only flash a yellow card. We’ve got another half to make up for that though…




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