Bradley: We fear nobody
CONOR BRADLEY believes youth can be a strong point for Northern Ireland as Michael O’neill’s latest transformation of the team takes shape.
The 20-year-old’s first international goal secured a 1-0 win over Scotland on Tuesday to continue a promising run of results.
Northern Ireland have followed victory over Denmark in the final Euro 2024 qualifier in November with a draw against Romania in Bucharest and a first Hampden triumph in 50 years.
O’neill fielded an inexperienced starting line-up in Glasgow, including five players under the age of 23, and his players responded with a performance full of spirit as they frustrated Scotland.
Liverpool star Bradley said: “We have really taken a lot from this camp. We’ve worked at our game and how Michael wants us to play. We will take a lot of confidence from the results.
“We are a young side and we don’t really fear anybody. We just want to play our game.
“At times we can maybe play a bit more football and be a bit braver on the ball, but that will come with a bit of experience and I think we will just keep getting better.”
O’neill has gone through a similar process of blooding young players before, which peaked with qualification for Euro 2016 and two subsequent near-misses.
There is now optimism among the Northern
Ireland camp that they can make similar progress ahead of a Nations League campaign in the autumn which sees them face Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Belarus.
Bradley added: “We all knew when Michael came in how good a manager he was. Taking a nation of how small we are to a European Championship finals was magnificent and hopefully we can do it in the future.
“But we are just looking forward to the next games in the Nations League.”