NI's Bradley aims to give Wirtz 'difficult night'

Fifa World Cup qualifier: Germany v Northern Ireland

Venue: RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne Date: Sunday, 7 September Kick-off: 19:45 BST

Coverage: Watch live on BBC One NI, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and app

Conor Bradley is looking forward to the challenge of facing his new Liverpool team-mate Florian Wirtz when Northern Ireland play Germany in World Cup qualifying on Sunday.

Wirtz joined the Anfield club from Bayer Leverkusen in a £116m deal in June and has started three Premier League games for Arne Slot's side.

The 22-year-old has yet to share the field with Bradley, whose return from a hamstring injury last month came as a replacement for Wirtz against Newcastle United, but the pair figure to be in direct opposition down the flank at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne.

"Florian's a top player. There's a reason we bought him for the money we did," said Bradley, whose first Northern Ireland goal came against the Scotland side of Liverpool team-mate Andy Robertson in March 2024.

"He's obviously had a brilliant few years at Leverkusen and now he's come to us, and I think he started the season really well. He's really good with the ball, he's really creative and he's not scared to take a few risks with the ball as well.

"He's a top player and I know it's going to be a difficult night for me but hopefully I can make it a difficult night for him too."

Having played just 10 minutes for Liverpool this season because of his injury, Northern Ireland's win over Luxembourg on Thursday evening represented Bradley's first start of the 2025-26 campaign.

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

"It was really disappointing to pick up the injury when I did," he said.

"Obviously it wasn't a big injury, it was only a few weeks, but it was really disappointing. I'm just happy to be back now.

"I have to show patience and I just have to pace myself through games to make sure I get through them and just look after myself."

Germany come into Sunday's game off the back of Thursday's surprise 2-0 loss to Slovakia to start their qualifying campaign with Bradley believing it is a result that leaves the race to make it to next year's World Cup from Pool A "wide open".

"Shocked, probably, to start with," he said of his reaction to hearing news of Slovakia's win after coming off the pitch in Luxembourg.

"I think you can look at it both ways. I think it's good and bad. Obviously, that means the group's wide open now which is good for us [and] if we can get a positive result it's only good for us."

Germany's latest loss means it is three defeats on the spin for Julian Nagelsmann's side, but Bradley is in no doubt about the enduring quality of the four-time World Cup winners.

"It's going to be a really difficult test. Germany are one of the top nations in the whole world," he added.

"They've got some top players, so it's always nice going up against top players and seeing where you're at compared to them.

"Obviously with the result the other night for them, they're going to be bang at it from the start so we've got to stick together and I think we're in with a good chance."