NI’s Bradley aims to give Wirtz ‘difficult night’

Germany vs. Northern Ireland: Fifa World Cup qualifier

Date: Sunday, September 7th, 2019 Kick-off: 19:45 BST

When Northern Ireland take on Germany in World Cup qualifying on Sunday, Conor Bradley is looking forward to facing his new Liverpool team-mate Florian Wirtz.

In June, Wirtz made his Premier League debut for Arne Slot’s side with a £116 million deal from Bayer Leverkusen.

The pair are expected to be in direct opposition down the flank at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne, but the 22-year-old has yet to play alongside Bradley, who returned from a hamstring injury last month to replace Wirtz against Newcastle United.

“Florian is a formidable player.” In March 2024, Bradley’s first Northern Ireland goal was against the Scotland side of Liverpool team-mate Andy Robertson, and there is a reason we bought him for the money we did.

“He obviously spent a lot of time at Leverkusen before joining us, and I believe he did a great job of starting the season.” He plays ball really well, plays it creatively, and doesn’t shy away from taking any chances with it.

Northern Ireland’s victory over Luxembourg on Thursday night marked Bradley’s first start of the 2025-26 campaign despite the injury that limited Bradley’s playing time this season to just 10 minutes.

The 22-year-old acknowledged it had been frustrating to start the season on the sidelines, coming at a time when he would have hoped to claim a right-back spot at Liverpool following Trent Alexander-Arnold’s move to Real Madrid.

He said, “It was really disappointing that I picked up the injury.”

It was a “really disappointing” injury, despite the fact that it wasn’t a serious one, and it only lasted a few weeks. I’m simply content to be here now.

Germany’s qualifying campaign began with a surprise 2-0 defeat to Slovakia on Thursday, with Bradley believing that this result leaves the race to qualify for the World Cup in Pool A “wide open.”

He described his shock, “probably, to begin with” after hearing about Slovakia’s victory on the pitch in Luxembourg.

You can look at it both, in my opinion. Both positive and negative, in my opinion. That means that the group is now very open, which is good for us, and that only benefits us if we can achieve a positive outcome.

Germany’s latest defeat is their third successive defeat under Julian Nagelsmann’s leadership, but Bradley has no doubts about the team’s unwavering reputation.

“It’s going to be a really challenging test,” she said. He continued, “Germany are one of the top nations in the world.”

“They have some very talented players, so it’s always nice to pit you against them and see where you stand in comparison to them.”