Northern Ireland defender Conor Bradley was "outstanding" in Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Aston Villa at the weekend, according to Reds boss Arne Slot.
The 22-year-old, who has had a stop-start season due to injuries, was back to his majestic best as reigning champions Liverpool ended their run of four successive Premier League defeats on Saturday evening.
Slot said after the game: "You cannot compare Trent (Alexander-Arnold) with Conor, but Conor played an outstanding game, like many others. I think the team’s performance is what made the difference today.
“The challenge for him now is to make himself ready because he's not been used to 90 minutes a lot this season and after two days of rest the next one (against Real Madrid) is coming up.”
Crystal Palace midfielder Justin Devenny added to his game time, playing the final 12 minutes as a substitute in the Eagles’ 2-0 win over London rivals Brentford at Selhurst Park.
Meanwhile, in the EFL Championship, Ruairi McConville played the full 90 minutes as he started a league game for the first time this season, however Norwich City slumped to a ninth defeat of the campaign, going down 2-0 at home to Hull City.
Northern Ireland U19 international midfielder Max Wilson was an unused substitute for Preston North End in their 2-0 win at Southampton. At the same time former Newcastle United defender Jamal Lewis made his debut as a late substitute for the Lilywhites after signing a short-term deal with the Championship outfit last week.
Injury woes continue to mount for some members of Michael O’Neill’s squad as Southampton’s Shea Charles has been ruled out until late December with a hamstring complaint, while Preston’s Ali McCann has a broken arm and full-back Brodie Spencer has a foot injury which looks set to rule him out of the upcoming World Cup qualifiers with Slovakia and Luxembourg.
“It looks as though Brodie’s foot injury may be a metatarsal injury,” revealed Oxford United boss Gary Rowett. “He’ll be out for a good few weeks I would imagine.”
In the FA Cup first round Bailey Peacock-Farrell kept a second clean sheet of the season as Blackpool made it through to the next stage of the competition with a 1-0 home win over Scunthorpe United and Lee Bonis’ penalty just after the hour mark was enough to see Chesterfield surprisingly knock out League One Stevenage.
Cameron McGeehan hit a consolation goal for Northampton Town, who fell at the first hurdle after a 3-1 defeat to League Two Oldham Athletic, and Northern Ireland U21 defender Sam Inwood made his debut in Aldershot’s 2-1 extra time loss at Weston-super-Mare following his loan move from Bolton Wanderers.
In Scotland St Mirren pair Conor McMenamin and Liam Donnelly have a League Cup Final clash with Celtic to look forward to - on 14 December - after Stephen Robinson's side's 4-1 semi-final defeat of Motherwell at Hampden Park on Saturday.
In the U21 Premier League in England, Kieran Morrison found the net as Liverpool defeated Middlesbrough 4-2 and Aodhan Doherty scored his second of the season as Blackburn Rovers beat Manchester United 4-0.
Finally, Sean Corry was on target as Derby County won a thrilling encounter with Stoke City 5-4 in the U18 Premier League, and former Linfield player Ceadach O’Neill took his tally for the season to eight as Arsenal lost 6-2 to Aston Villa.
