Learn English Through Football

Football Language Podcast: From the Archive – 2018 Champions League Final – The Good, the Bad , and the Ugly: We continue our run up to the Champions League final with another post from our archive. This time from 2018 and the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid.
Football Language Podcast: From the Archive – 2018 Champions League Final – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Introduction
DB: Welcome to languagecaster.com and our look back at the Champions League finals in past years. My name’s Damon, and thanks for dropping in and listening to our series of archive posts in the build up to the Champions League final of 2019. This post from our Champions League final archive is a bit painful for me. Maybe that’s why it was only Damian that recorded the podcast. My team, Liverpool, lost the final against Real Madrid, and I must admit it took a while for me to recover. Anyway, here is Damian looking over the game and picking out what was good, bad, and ugly!
2018 Champions League Final: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Introduction
DF: Hello everyone, my name is Damian and I am here in a very sunny London the day after the 2018 Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid in which Madrid won their 13th title – that’s six ahead of the second most successful side in European Cup/Champions League history, that’s AC Milan. Madrid won 3-1 in a pulsating game – a really exciting match – which had a little bit of everything: goals, howlers, tears and controversies. So, in this audio report, I am going to review some of the good, the bad and the ugly from the 2018 Champions League final. If you’d like the transcript to this report – great for learners and teachers of English – please show your support by becoming a patron (through Patreon) and if you have questions or comments, then you can email us at: admin@languagecaster.com (Damian=DF).
Good
As we have already mentioned, Real Madrid have now won 13 European Cup/Champions League titles in total and have also won three titles in a row, three consecutive years. They are the first side to win a triple since Bayern Munich did it between 1974 and 1976; indeed they’ve won four out of the last five titles. Their manager, Zinedine Zidane, has been in charge for all three of those Champions League wins and is the first manager to win three titles in a row and is now ranked as the most successful Champions League manager along with Liverpool’s Bob Paisley and Carlo Ancelotti, for AC Milan and Real Madrid, with those three wins.
It was also a good, no great, night for Gareth Bale who came off the bench to score one of the best ever goals in a Champions League final to put Madrid 2-1 up in the 64th minute. The Welsh superstar’s overhead kick flew into the top corner (or the top bin) giving the keeper no chance at all only 120 seconds after coming onto the pitch. He then rounded off the night with another strike – from nearly 40 yards – to win the man-of-the-match award and seal the 3-1 win for Los Blancos with his brace.
Bad
It was not a good night at all for Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius who was at fault for two of the three Madrid ...