BARCELONA LOANEE SCORES ON DEBUT

Brazilian playmaker Philippe Coutinho made an instant impact for new club Aston Villa after he came off the bench to win a point for the former European champions during their home game against Manchester United in the Premier League.

Coutinho is a Barcelona loanee after joining Aston Villa on loan from the Catalan giants until the end of the season. His loan deal from Barcelona was finalised at the start of last week. Villa have the option to make his loan deal a permanent one at the end of his loan spell at the club. By the time he finishes his Villa loan, Coutinho will have just one year left on his Barcelona contract.

Brazilian player Coutinho made a return to the Premier League after four years when he came on for French midfielder Morgan Sanson at the start of the last quarter with Villa trailing 2-0 to the Red Devils at home. Coutinho was able to inspire Villa to a 2-2 draw with the hosts netting twice in the final thirteen (13) minutes. As a matter of fact, the two Villa goals came within four minutes.

Coutinho was one of the best players in the Premier League before he left Merseyside outfit Liverpool to sign for Barcelona in a £142m deal thus making him the third most expensive footballer till date behind Neymar and KylianMbappe. He didn’t have the best of times at Barcelona and was even loaned out for the 2019/20 season. Coutinho was at Bayern Munich on loan and he helped them win the Champions League. The Brazilian even scored twice for Bayern Munich during the 8-2 annihilation of Barcelona when the two teams met at the quarterfinal stage.

On his Villa debut, Coutinho scored the second equaliser on 81 minutes off the assist from young midfielder Jacob Ramsey who had halved the deficit four minutes earlier. Bruno Fernandes had scored twice either side of the break to put Manchester United 2-0 up before the fightback from their hosts.