Conor Bradley plans Florian Wirtz talks ahead of World Cup qualifiers
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Image Credits: Imago ImagesLiverpool were handed a massive boost over the international break as Conor Bradley returned for Northern Ireland, playing nearly 80 minutes.
The right-back had only been fit enough for the bench against Arsenal last Sunday, watching Dominik Szoboszlai put in an impressive performance.
Bradley will face off against Liverpool teammate Florian Wirtz when Germany take on Northern Ireland on Sunday.
Wirtz joined Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen in a £100million deal over the summer.
The 22-year-old played the full 90 minutes for Germany on Thursday as the Group A favourites suffered a shock 2-0 defeat in Slovakia, while Bradley shone in Northern Ireland’s 3-1 win over Luxembourg.
Michael O’Neill’s side now face a tough test in Cologne against a German team eager to bounce back.
Bradley, who can offer his teammates insight into Wirtz’s qualities, has joked that he might need to call in a favour from his new teammate before facing him on the international stage.
“It’s going to be another difficult game but looking forward to it,” Conor Bradley told BBC Sport NI?
“We (Bradley and Wirtz) had a few jokes before we went away, not Whatsapps yet but I’ll have to get into him tomorrow and tell him to take it easy on us!
“He’s an unbelievable player
I’ve seen that from the few weeks we’ve had together in pre-season, and we’ll have to keep him quiet Sunday night.”
On the win against 10-man Luxembourg, the 22-year-old added: “We started the first half really quick, and it was the same second half.
“Michael had a little bit of a go at us at half-time, it wasn’t good enough, rightly so, but we came out all guns blazing second half.
“I think we made it difficult for ourselves, we could have played better but second half I think we played some good stuff, and it obviously helped when they went down to 10 men, it made it a bit easier from there and it is nice to get a 3-1 win, its brilliant for us.”
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