Stefan Bajcetic made his debut for Pepijn Lijnders‘ Salzburg on Wednesday night, and despite losing 3-0 to Sparta Prague the Liverpool loanee was a standout.
Bajcetic opted to join former Liverpool coach Lijnders at Salzburg towards the end of the summer transfer window, having been made available for loan.
Visa issues delayed the Spaniard’s debut, but after sitting out a 3-2 defeat to Rapid Vienna in the Austrian Bundesliga he was straight into the starting lineup for the Champions League.
That came at home to Sparta Prague, with Lijnders naming a bold starting lineup that included seven players aged 21 or under and an average age of just 22.
Bajcetic started alongside another debutant in midfield, Bobby Clark, with the Englishman having made the permanent move from Liverpool earlier in the summer.
Unfortunately, it came in a miserable defeat for Salzburg, who shipped two goals in the first half and one soon after the restart to slump to a 3-0 loss.
Making his first start at senior level in a year, Bajcetic operated as a deep-lying midfielder, with the youngster one of few bright spots for Lijnders.
Per FotMob, he had the second-most touches of any player (95), making the third-most passes (68) with a completion rate of 88 percent.
No player made more passes into the final third (12), while only Sparta winger Veljko Birmancevic (17) contested more duels than his 14, with Bajcetic winning seven of those.
Bajcetic also created the joint-most chances (two) and had one shot on goal in a game in which Salzburg dominated possession (71%) but were undone by a clinical Sparta side.
His fellow midfielder Clark also produced a tidy display, completing 45 of his 47 attempted passes (96%) and winning four of his five duels (80%) in a more advanced role.
Perhaps the biggest positive for both players given the result was that they were able to clock more than an hour on the pitch each – Bajcetic played 83 minutes while Clark played 66.
Lijnders will be required to ease Bajcetic in due to his longstanding fitness issues while Clark faces a similar situation having not played since April due to a season-ending injury.
Next up for Salzburg is a trip to WSG Tirol in the league, while their next Champions League fixture is away to French side Brest on October 1.
