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. [ Who is Conor Bradley? From Tyrone GAA to lighting up Anfield with Liverpool Opens in new window ] 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, managing the best team in Europe right now.
For Bradley the duel with Mbappé was close to in-the-pocket stuff. In memes terms, the poorly photoshopped head literally poking out of a picture of a pocket. In between defendin.
