Coutinho Was Right To Swap Liverpool For Barcelona

Former Liverpool winger Albert Riera is in support of the decision by Philippe Coutinho to swap the Reds for Spanish champions Barcelona at the start of last year.

Ahead of the Champions League semifinal first leg clash between Barcelona and Liverpool, Riera told Goal that Coutinho was right to swap Liverpool for the Spanish La Liga club despite his average start to life with the Catalan giants.

According to him, Brazilian international Philippe Coutinho moved from a big club like Liverpool to Barcelona which is probably the biggest club in the world at the moment.

After a protracted transfer saga in January 2018, Liverpool reluctantly let Coutinho join Barcelona for an initial fee believed to be around £116m this making him the third most expensive player in the history of world football behind the Paris Saint Germain (PSG) duo of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

• Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s major concern about Paul Pogba

Coutinho will reunite with his then Liverpool teammates when the Reds take on his Barcelona side at the Nou Camp on Wednesday night in what’s the first leg of their semifinal tie in the Champions League.

Both sides meet again for the second leg on Tuesday.

Philippe Coutinho has been able to resurrect his ailing Barcelona career in recent weeks and he would be hoping for more of the same against his former club.