Bradley is Northern Ireland’s new star and the right-back is excited about facing Robertson and Scotland in tonight’s friendly. He says his Reds colleague is one of the top left-backs in the world and is relishing testing himself against him on their wing.
But it is typical of the bullish Bradley that he reckons it is a showdown he can win. “I think it could be a good battle,” said Bradley.
“It’ll be brilliant for me to test myself against one of the best left-backs in the world. I’m really looking forward to it. Hopefully it will be a good battle, but maybe a battle I’ll win!”
He was involved in Northern Ireland’s goal in their highly-creditable draw with Romania in Bucharest on Friday as manager Michael O’Neill fielded a young side with an average age of 23.5 years.
Bradley, 20, has taken his excellent form for Liverpool into the Irish set-up and hopes more of his international team-mates can join him in the Premier League to help O’Neill’s squad even more.
“Hopefully it has given everyone in Northern Ireland a buzz because the team definitely has a real buzz,” he said. “We want to get some momentum and take that into the next campaign. We want as many of us playing in the Premier League as possible. It’s brilliant for us and it’s brilliant for the team.”
Bradley refuses to see going away with Northern Ireland as a reason to ease up from Liverpool’s hectic schedule and the Reds face Brighton at Anfield on Sunday when they resume their quest for glory in the Premier League and Europa League.
They will play 15 matches if Jurgen Klopp’s final game is to be the Europa League Final in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on May 22 and Bradley says no-one at Anfield is getting ahead of themselves.
Bradley will be club allegiances on hold when he faces up against Liverpool and Scotland’s Robertson
He says the key to Liverpool’s success is to take each game as it comes. “Yeah, it’s literally that, just keep going on the next game,” he said. “If you think too far ahead, it’ll just hinder you in the long run.
“We just try and focus on the next game, who have we got next? What are they good at? Hopefully we can stop them. Then after that game, we can prepare for the next one. That’s a good way to have it and it’s definitely worked for us so far.”
