Liverpool and Manchester United are among the sides tracking Lyon attacking midfielder Rayan Cherki

Corentin Tolisso is sat in the press room at Old Trafford on Wednesday night scrolling through his phone and smiling.

He's waiting for Lyon's press conference to start as hushed conversations in the room focus on the surprise in England at the level of 21-year-old superstar Rayan Cherki.

It was Cherki's last-minute goal, helped in no small part by an error from Andre Onana, that has set up Thursday's Europa League quarter-final perfectly at 2-2.

'If they discovered Rayan last week, it's because they haven't watched much football in recent months,' Tolisso laughed.

'Rayan has done things that have been making the rounds on social media for a while. I hope that after the match, they'll know Rayan even more and hate him even more!'

You can make a strong argument right now that no young player in Europe is playing as well as Cherki.

He arrives at Old Trafford with nine goals and 18 assists in 36 games this season across all competitions at club level. Nobody has more assists in the Europa League than Cherki (8) while he is tied in Ligue 1 alongside Paris Saint-Germain's Bradley Barcola and FC Nantes' Moses Simon.

Against England Under-21s in Lorient recently he had two assists inside seven minutes and added a goal of his own before the night was out. He toyed with England like an adult against children.

With a verbal agreement on a release clause for around £25million, all of Europe's elite, including Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain, are now circling a player that they hope has finally flicked a switch on his maturity to make him worth the gamble.

Cherki came back to bite Manchester United last week and is ready to do so again now. Lyon have finally found the formula for their 'genius' young star to deliver on the biggest stage.