Coutinho's "brilliant" gesture to lower league player after Liverpool heartache

Philippe Coutinho has been praised for his "brilliant" gesture towards a lower league player while at Liverpool.

The Brazilian was part of the Reds side that inflicted penalty shoot-out heartache on Carlisle United in September 2015.

The Anfield match would prove to be Brendan Rodgers ' penultimate home game in charge of the club as the Jurgen Klopp era loomed.

Despite Coutinho being denied a goal for his efforts in the third-round League Cup tie, former Blues defender Tom Miller has revealed that the now Barcelona star 'waited 15 minutes' after the shoot-out's conclusion to give him his shirt, remembering that Miller had requested it mid-game.

Coutinho waited 15 minutes to give Carlisle's Miller (far left) his shirt ( Image:

Andrew Powell)

Danny Ings had opened opened the scoring for Liverpool by converting Adam Lallana 's 23rd-minute cross but Rodgers and co were pegged back by Derek Asamoah slotting home in front of the Kop before half-time.

The cup clash, in which the Reds fired off a whopping 47 shots, went to extra-time and it was the heroics from goalkeeper Adam Bodgan which ensured the hosts safe passage into the fourth round.

As Carlisle's players stayed out on the turf long after the final spot-kick, a classy Coutinho - who missed his penalty after 120 frustrating minutes - was waiting to give Miller his shirt, which still hangs in the ex-Bury and Lincoln man's house.

"I made sure [I got his shirt]," Miller told BBC Radio Cumbria during an episode of team-mates ahead of his old employers' 2-2 draw at Newport County on Tuesday.

"We went into extra-time and I'd pulled him early doors when he was skipping past me.

"I just shouted in his ear 'can I have your shirt?'," the 31-year-old free agent, who described the night as his "top memory" in three years at Brunton Park, explained.

"He waited for me and everything in the tunnel because we were out for 15 minutes after the penalties had finished just enjoying the moment.

Coutinho saw his penalty saved by Mark Gillespie but Liverpool won the shoot-out

"He stood in the tunnel waiting for me, so it was was brilliant from him to be fair, a player of his calibre."

Coutinho, bought by Barcelona in January 2018 for £142million, was soon to be managed by Klopp, with Rodgers dismissed after a 1-1 Merseyside Derby at Everton 11 days later.

Almost 6,000 Cumbrians had travelled down to see their beloved Blues take on the then five-time European champions at one of English football's most famous grounds, certainly making themselves heard in the lower tier of the Anfield Road End.

Miller would go on to help Keith Curle 's side finish in the League Two play-off places the following season, beaten in the last minute of their second leg away to Exeter City, losing 6-5 on aggregate following two thrilling contests at each end of the country.

Former Manchester City and England defender Curle, who will return to Brunton Park this Saturday as his Oldham Athletic take on manager-less Carlisle, declared post-match: "You are looking at a team which made a lot of friends tonight."

If Coutinho's gesture is anything to go by, he was not wrong.