Liverpool's Adam Lallana believes teammate Raheem Sterling is mature beyond his 20 years.
The England international scored a brace in Wednesday night's 3-1 Capital One Cup quarter-final win over AFC Bournemouth to break a three-month scoring drought and atone for missing clear chances in the weekend's 3-0 loss to Manchester United.
In the wake of Sterling's match-winning double at the Goldsands Stadium, Reds midfielder Lallana spoke highly of the promising youngster who now has five goals for the 2014/15 campaign.
"We knew we would have to show quality tonight and the little man (Sterling) was brilliant," Lallana told Sky Sports.
"Week in, week out he's worked hard and eventually his goals were going to come and it's a credit to how mature he is at such a young age."
Sterling's brace, along with Lazar Markovic's first goal for the club, sent Liverpool into the league cup semi-finals where they will face Chelsea in a two-legged play-off for the chance to go to Wembley.
