Conor Bradley proves Jurgen Klopp spot on with reaction to international frustration

Conor Bradley's reaction to Northern Ireland's stalemate with Belarus sums up everything Jurgen Klopp previously said about him.

The 21-year-old enjoyed a memorable evening for his nation despite the 0-0 draw on Saturday, and becoming the youngest player to do so during its Nations League clash.

Despite his historic night, the right-back admitted his frustration at the result, which left Northern Ireland one point behind its hosts in the Nations League as it targets promotion to League B.

"I'm really disappointed. I thought the performance was really good. I thought we played some really good stuff, especially in the first half, with some of our patterns of play that we had been working on all week came to fruition out there. I'm just really disappointed we didn't get the three points," he told BBC.

"It's one of the best performances we've had for a while but the ball wouldn't go in the back of the net. if we got one then we could have got three or four. It was just one of those nights. At least we didn't lose the game, I thought we done really well to keep the clean sheet. We'll go again now on Tuesday.”

While it wasn't a bad result in the grand scheme of things for Northern Ireland, with a point maintaining its unbeaten run in the group, disappointment at only achieving a draw shows his good mentality.

And this backs up comments from after last season's 4-0 victory over LASK in the , where he made his European debut with a late substitute appearance.

Yet despite featuring for less than 10 minutes of the Anfield success, Klopp couldn't speak highly enough of the youngster and admitted he loved giving the Northern Ireland international his first taste of European football.

Speaking to TNT Sports after the game in November 2023, the German said: "I love it," Klopp told after the match. "And Conor, with just a few moments in the game, you can see he is a real talent for us. He is a real prospect for us.

"We really count on him. It is so nice." He added: “There are a lot of positives. For Conor tonight, I told him after the game to enjoy it."

Less than a year later, Bradley has become Northern Ireland's youngest captain (21 years, three months and three days old) since Steven Davis in 2006 (21 years, four months, 20 days), breaking a record that stood for almost two decades.

It not only shows the high regard in which he is held within his own country, but the tremendous progress he has made since breaking through into Liverpool's first team under Klopp last season.