With 30 minutes gone at Anfield there was a moment of home-crowd theatre that would stand as the defining image of this , perhaps even of Conor Bradley’s young career to date, and which also produced surely the loudest and most visceral roar of the night. And let’s face it, who doesn’t like a loud and visceral roar. It came from a Liverpool corner, Kylian Mbappé carrying the ball upfield, and feeling the night start to open up ahead of him.
At which, point: enter Bradley, haring across from the left, with an energy that stated very clearly this was not a footballer intent on harrying or jockeying or showing Mbappé the outside, but who instead intended to separate Mbappé’s feet, and also the ball, from the Anfield turf. Already you could feel the air starting to rise, like the static before a lightning bolt, the crowd taking a collective breath as Bradley launched himself, took the ball, upended Mbappé and was met with a kind of thunderclap from three sides of the ground, so loud people in the city centre will just have assumed Liverpool had scored. It was just a beautiful night all round for Bradley, who was given the chance to line up against Mbappé from the start.
It was an excellent selection from Arne Slot, who could have gone with the relative safety of Joe Gomez, but instead simply trusted the talent. Slot would spend the night striding his touchline, magnificently smooth and tender pate gleaming under the midweek lights, and is, it seems safe to say, .