Slot singles out Liverpool star for special praise in Real Madrid win with Fowler stunned | OneFootball

Liverpool boss Arne Slot has picked out Conor Bradley for special praise after his “outstanding” performance in a 1-0 win over Real Madrid on Tuesday night.

The Reds put in a good performance at Anfield with Alexis Mac Allister’s second-half header giving Liverpool all three points in the league phase of the Champions League.

Liverpool right-back Bradley, who has come in for some criticism this season, did a great job of keeping Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior quiet.

The Reds made it two wins in a row in all competitions after a horrific run of four Premier League defeats on the bounce and Slot was pleased Bradley and his side put in a good display.

When asked about their second clean sheet in a row and Bradley “setting the tone”, Slot told reporters: “So, let’s be clear: we had a very bad run of form in terms of results. No excuse in the world can make up for us losing so many games.

“But we had to play a lot of games in a small amount of time, with hardly any rest in between when we then faced a team that had a lot of rest. Tonight we played against a team that played on Saturday as well, so the both of us had two days’ rest.

“Then it’s helpful to play a home game, because from the last eight I think we played six away from home. The fans can give you just a little bit of an extra edge if you are a little bit tired.

Slot added: “Conor was outstanding. It was very nice. Last season he was outstanding against Real Madrid but he had to go off after 80 minutes because of an injury. Now, three days after he played 90 minutes against Villa, he again played 90 minutes with incredible intensity against Vinicius.

“I told the players before the game, they have scored 26 goals in La Liga and Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius have 24 goal contributions together.

“So if you want to have any chance of winning a game, you should defend your set-pieces well because that’s a way teams score, but great individuals can score goals as well and these two definitely can. Conor defended very good against Vinicius.”

Liverpool idol Robbie Fowler was also impressed by Bradley, he said on Amazon Prime TV: “Conor Bradley, wow, he put in an unbelievable performance and if Vinicius Junior gets to his bedroom tonight I’ll be amazed because I think Conor Bradley might be stopping him getting in there.”