Philippe Coutinho's second-half brace saw Brazil past Bolivia in Friday's Group A curtain-raiser.
Match Report
Philippe Coutinho scored a brace as Brazil opened the Copa America with a 3-0 win over Bolivia in Sao Paulo.
After an underwhelming first half at Estadio do Morumbi, Coutinho scored twice within eight minutes of the restart to put Brazil in control on Friday.
A VAR check and handball led Coutinho to the penalty spot and the Barcelona star made no mistake in the 50th minute before making it 2-0 three minutes later after capping a sweeping move.
Match Events
11' CHANCE! Silva's header wide out
Dreadful marking from Bolivia as Thiago Silva is left alone in the centre, rising to meet a corner. The whole of the stadium was expecting the back of the net to bulge there, but the centre-back sends his glancing header agonisingly wide of the far post!
40' MISS! Coutinho's header wide out
Coutinho runs towards the near post as he latches onto the end of a Filipe Luis cross, but he can't get the contact right as he scuffs it well wide of the goal. Into the final five minutes of the first half and the opener still eludes Brazil.
50' Penalty Goal! Brazil 1-0 Bolivia (Coutinho)
Coutinho smashes home the first goal of the 2019 Copa America as he drills his penalty low and into the bottom corner, with Lampe unable to get close to it despite guessing the right way.
53' GOAL! Brazil 2-0 Bolivia (Coutinho)
Coutinho has a quickfire double and Brazil lead 2-0! Simple as can be from the hosts as Richarlison plays the ball out wide for Firmino, who dinks a delicious cross in towards the far post where Coutinho sprints to meet it, heading home into an empty net! Brazil are flying high now!
85' GOAL! Brazil 3-0 Bolivia (Everton)
Brazil lead 3-0 courtest of an absolute screamer from Everton, who has his first international goal in some style! He cuts inside onto his right foot, before bending a vicious strike into the far corner from 20 yards! Incredible.
TheMVPJuan
2942
Next week: Real Madrid Barcelona and PSG want to sign Everton😂😂😂
tewbks
1960
vAlvErdE bE liKE- coUtInhO iS A wINgEr
paycdopt
1332
valverde now learn to play coutinho in the midfield !
VanishPrasad
526
Everton, the only EPL club to score in the Copa America
Dudckmp
453
Coutinho has the freedom to play his natural game..... No need to spoon feed players.... Well played Coutinho 💛💚💛💚💛💚
pesabdekl
355
Coutinho opposite of messi. Barcelona: Not found. Brasil: Outstanding.
ak3000
339
The only player Liverpool will never sign, even if he begs for it: Everton [Crylaugh]
ikalenge
311
So Brazil has a player called Everton, hope Uruguay and other nations will add liverpool, Manchester, Chelsea Aston villa in their team as well.
Aritra©Best
296
This match brought NOTHIN' to me except 108 @AF coins...[Crylaugh][Crylaugh][Crylaugh]
ⓜⓞⓞⓢⓐbaloch
263
Coutinho isn't the problem, it's valverde . ❤️❤️
GobindaRanaXettri
218
Two goals from Countinho.The best lesson for Valverde how player should be used and how good he can play in his natural position. #Valverde_Out🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻
kambcrsuy
141
This coach doesn't know how to make use of a player, transfer window is open now and no one is talking about attackers only midfielders and defenders which is not really a Barcelona problems but when the season started, he will start playing midfielders as a winger and that is the main reason behind Coutinho's underperformance at Barcelona. No backup for the front right wing, no backup for the left back wing, no good backup for the striking wing, but Barcelona has almost eight or nine midfielders and still want more and you tell me that the coach is good? Mind you that without Messi Barcelona maybe going for Europa league this season. The coach doesn't even know his responsibilities as a coach.
VanishPrasad
119
Morata scores, Lukaku scores and now Coutinho. These guys love the international games more than club games.
Longlife2000
103
But our third class coach will use him as a winger look how good he is in the midfield just exceptional love you coutinho
29356899(deleted)
82
This Brazil team has fire and fight like I haven’t seen since the days of the Socrates, Zico team of years gone by. Even a player like Jesus showed the Brazilian flair and skill that I never thought he had. Everton is truly a real magician and Coutinho reminded me of his best Liverpool days. They played like a fantastic street team, hungry for to win every ball. I don’t want to appear to be a Neymar knocker, but he has no place in this free flowing team of highly skilled players. Brazil looked and played like the Brazil we know of old, the Brazil that dreams are made of. Keep this magical lineup Tite and don’t let anyone destroy the amazing free flowing football. I can’t say enough of this Brazil Aplus team. The dream lives again.10/10. 🇧🇷
P_Taneja
72
Neither cout is problem and in this case maybe not even valverde The problem lies with transfer Cout came in to be replacement of iniesta and grizzy was to come in as replacement of neymar and dembele to add to the forwards and complete the set But grizzy refused so cout had to play in new position lw which is not tailormade for him and he had problems to settle Barca board please don't sell him, play him in midfield and you will see his quality....
MikelatySogwa
45
Coutinho is always a good player but the position they used him in Barca isn’t favorable to him all ,they should fix him back to his position that he play in there national team and Liverpool
Meokorstu
8
valverde now learn to play coutinho in the midfield !
trust me . he didn't