Stefan Bajcetic lauded by Steven Gerrard as teenager creates historical past for Liverpool in Champions League

Stefan Bajcetic is displaying “maturity past his years” as he created historical past for Liverpool by turning into the youngest participant to start out in a Champions League recreation for the membership.

That’s in response to Steven Gerrard, who has piled reward on the 18-year-old after he was handed a begin in Liverpool’s midfield by Jurgen Klopp for the go to of Actual Madrid within the last-16 first leg.

Since rising from the Reds’ academy into the primary workforce across the flip of the yr, Bajcetic has hardly put a foot flawed – particularly spectacular given the membership’s tough begin to 2023.

“He’s doing very properly either side of the sport,” Gerrard advised BT Sport.

“He’s proven aggression, he’s masking the bottom very properly. I like midfielders who play with the eyebrows up, he’s all the time trying to move ahead, he’s all the time trying to be constructive. He can play the final move.

“And his maturity is past his years, up to now. Honest play to him, he’s took his probability.”

Bajcetic – who’s holding out the likes of Naby Keita and James Milner in midfield – was lately hailed by Mohamed Salah as being Liverpool’s greatest participant since breaking into Klopp’s first XI.

“For the mainstay, one of many largest gamers within the workforce, to be saying that, that should instil large confidence on this younger participant,” mentioned Rio Ferdinand, who was additionally on BT Sport obligation.

“He seems to be an actual expertise. He’s comfy taking the ball in numerous areas. To return in at Anfield and play for Liverpool takes a sure sort of character and participant to do this, and he doesn’t look afraid of the large stage in any respect.”

Fellow pundit Michael Owen mentioned for Klopp to play him in Liverpool’s “largest recreation of the season” is the “final praise”.

He added: “Keep in mind, that is an space that everybody thinks goes to be revamped, let’s say, in the summertime. It’s his alternative now to stake a declare and to ensure, if somebody comes into this membership, it’s not going to be him dropping out.”

Peter Crouch mentioned: “It’s simple to neglect that [his age]. Eighteen years of age, he’s so, so younger. To play in a recreation of this type of magnitude, it simply exhibits the supervisor trusts him.”