James McConnell has thanked Arne Slot for putting faith in Liverpool’s youngsters for their final Champions League league game against PSV Eindhoven. The 20-year-old was a star performer for the Reds as they fell to a 3-2 defeat in the Netherlands.

Despite the loss, Liverpool still topped the table and will now face either PSG, Benfica, Monaco or Brest in the round-of-16. Meanwhile, McConnell impressed Slot enough for the Dutchman to admit he is now unlikely to sanction a loan exit for the midfielder.

Having burst into the Reds first team last season, McConnell made 10 appearances under Jurgen Klopp and was a member of the side that won the League Cup.

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However, he missed the majority of the first half of Slot’s maiden campaign through injury, before making his senior return last month.

Handed his first start of the season against PSV, it marked only his third first team appearance of the campaign.

And while disappointed with the result, McConnell shared his pride at making his Champions League debut as he thanked Slot for handing him such an opportunity.

"It was a really proud moment to start the game and I was really excited,” he told the club website. "I think the boss has put faith in a lot of young lads tonight thanks to the work that all the senior lads have done over the course of the season to put us in such a good position.

"I'm really grateful to the boss and you've just got to try to take the opportunity when it comes to you, even if it was a tough game like that.

“It was obviously a good experience (but) it was very disappointing, the result.”

He continued: “We thought we could have got something from the game, especially at half-time we [thought] we should have been comfortably winning the game.

"But in the end we got punished and we [went] a man down in the last 10 minutes, so it was tough. But the lads put in a big shift and it is what it is in the end.

"If you ask the lads, we shouldn't have conceded all three goals really. Obviously we gave ourselves a bit of a mountain to climb in the second half when they made a lot of changes and we obviously had a lot of young lads on the bench. It was always going to be tough.

"The lads have done brilliantly to win the last seven games and I think we topped the group in the end.

"It's a great experience to learn from and it's always going to benefit us going forward."