Philippe Coutinho bends in 25-yard goal in Liverpool victory

Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho got the scoring started with a world-class goal Tuesday against Swansea City.

His strike debuted in the sixth minute of the Premier League scuffle at Anfield. Liverpool won the match 5-0.

Forward Roberto Firmino was dribbling down the center of the pitch before he found Mohamed Salah on the right side. Salah immediately laced a left-footed cross to a sprinting Coutinho.

What the midfielder did next was pure magic.

Coutinho stabbed the ball with his right foot to settle it down. He then ripped a shot toward the goal from the top of the half circle beyond the box. The strike elevated as it zoomed toward the net, beating Swansea City keeper Lukasz Fabianski, who could only look on.

Liverpool took the 1-0 edge into the half. Firmino went on to score in the 52nd and the 66th minute. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also added scores for the home squad. Coutinho assisted Firmino's first score off of a free kick.

"It's quite difficult, you can say a lot before the game in the analysis but it's always different to see it in the game," Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp told the team website. "Swansea is a different team to play against, they play real football so our main tool or weapon should have been today counter-pressing because you cannot come through with all the balls but very often if you lose the ball and then the next second it's 80 yards away, but Swansea is playing football. Our timing was not good in the situations, our formation was not good in these situations [in the first half] and so we were always a bit too late and they could play. They didn't get a lot of chances to be honest, they had one or two half-chances but it was quite intense so the way was always really long to come back into the right positions, the right situations."

"Even in a not perfect, not really good first half, we had enough chances to score two or three goals so that should be enough. I was not disappointed or whatever at half-time [but] we had to defend the situations much better, we had to be more compact. In a few moments we were kind of man-orientated, that's only allowed in our own box, so we had those few problems and we did better in the second half. I think we scored the first three goals after counter-pressing situations so that's good, and then it looks like after the game it's 5-0 and you think, 'wow, easy game' but it was not an easy game, it was really hard work and I have no problem with that, absolutely not. So I'm really happy about the things we learned from the game tonight. Now it's a perfect result for us, nobody got injured as far as I know, very important three points, five goals, clean sheet, all good."

Tuesday marked Coutinho's 200th appearance for Liverpool. The Reds host Leicester City at 10 a.m. Saturday in another Premier League battle at Anfield.