Maresca pleased with 'humble' Estevao
Enzo Maresca has no concerns over an overconfident Estevao becoming distracted by his early success after the Brazilian made Champions League history for Chelsea.
Estevao, aged 18 years and 181 days, became the youngest player to score for Chelsea in the competition with a penalty in its 5-1 thrashing of 10-man Ajax.
The winger is also the third-youngest penalty scorer in Champions League history, behind only Bojan (18y 90d for Barcelona v Sporting in 2008) and Lamine Yamal (18y 100d for Barcelona v Olympiacos).
Estevao has enjoyed a fine start to life at Stamford Bridge, having also scored a stoppage-time winner against Liverpool in the Premier League.
Maresca does not see any need to manage the 18 year-old too closely, however, with the Chelsea boss confident that Estevao will be guided down the right path.
"I feel very lucky to be his manager. He's exciting, we can enjoy," Maresca said at his post-match press conference.
"The fans pay the tickets to see players like Cole [Palmer] and Estevao, these types of players. It's nice to have these types of players.
"With young players, most of the time you are a bit worried because most of the time, they play one or two games and score, and they think they are already top players.
"But we don't need to worry about that with Estevao. He's very humble and polite and he has family close to him."
Chelsea, with an average age of 22 years and 163 days, named the second-youngest starting XI by an English side in Champions League history, with only Arsenal versus Olympiacos in December 2009 ever naming a younger side (21 years, 151 days).
Reggie Walsh then came off the bench to become Chelsea's youngest ever player in the competition (17 years, 2 days) and the second-youngest Englishman of all time, behind Jack Wilshere in November 2008 for Arsenal (16 years, 329 days).
In Marc Guiu (19), Estevao (18), and Tyrique George (19), Chelsea also marked another Champions League first after seeing three different teenagers score for them in a single match.
The experienced Enzo Fernandez scored the other goal from the penalty spot, and Moises Caicedo deflected one in after Kenneth Taylor's red card, though it was the youthful aspect of Chelsea's team that Maresca lauded.
"I work with them [young players] every day, I know what they can do," he said. "We are going to have moments where we struggle a little bit more, for sure, but the good thing about them is that they want to improve."
