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Steven Gerrard praised Liverpool's youngsters after they clinched third place in a youth tournament in Switzerland.

Under-18s coach Gerrard and assistant Tom Culshaw led a 23-man squad that has taken part in the eight-team FC Aesch International Under-19 tournament near to Basel.

With the matches lasting half-an-hour each way, Liverpool drew 0-0 with Hamburg on Friday before beating Olympiakos 2-0 and securing a semi-final berth with a 1-1 draw against Basel.

The young Reds were then beaten 3-1 on Sunday morning by Fulham in the last four, but later clinched third place by beating Juventus by the same scoreline.

Liam Millar, Rafael Camacho and Yasser Larouci scored the goals that earned the Reds a bronze medal.

And Gerrard, speaking to liverpoolfc.com, said: “It’s a test physically and it’s a test mentally and we need to see what these lads are like when the pressure is on, when they are tired, and when they are asked to perform when they are out of their comfort zone.

“When you play at the highest level the most testing time is always in the last 30 minutes of games, and we ask the lads 'can you produce quality as a player when you are tired, when your body wants to give up and when you want to quit?'

“It’s tournaments like this that give you a flavour individually both mentally and physically.

“You learn an awful lot about them, not just as footballers on the ball, but what they are like off the ball, what they are like around hotels, how they cope when you ask them to play minutes when they are tired.

“They get asked a lot of questions over two days and the majority of them have done really well.”

Hamburg, Red Star Belgrade and FC Aesch were the other teams involved in the tournament, with Basel beating Fulham 2-1 in the final.