Learn English Through Football

In this football language podcast we look at some of the words and phrases from the Guardian newspaper report on the 2022 World Cup qualifying match between Portugal and Ireland. You can read a transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.
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Learning English Through Football Podcast: 2022 World Cup Qualifier Portugal v Ireland
DF: Hello everyone, this is Damian from the Languagecaster.com team – I hope you are all doing well. Currently the 2022 World Cup qualifiers are taking place and so on this podcast we look at some of the words and phrases from the Guardian report on the Portugal versus Ireland match that took place earlier in the week. We look at some of the words from the headline and the main report, including ‘struck late on to win the game‘.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Irish).
Break Ireland’s hearts
This was the headline from the Guardian newspaper report on the game between Portugal and Ireland in which Cristiano Ronaldo scored two last-gasp goals to win the game 2-1. Ronaldo’s two goals (a brace) meant that he now has scored the most goals in international football (111) which is why he is described as ‘record-breaker‘ in this headline. Now, to break someone’s heart is to cause someone to feel great sadness and that is exactly how I felt after the game when Portugal snatched victory at the death. In this headline we can also see that the phrase ‘break Ireland’s hearts‘ is used in the present form as it is describing something that has just happened and that it also offers a sense of drama.
Have a penalty saved
So, this sentence appears at the start of the report and includes much of the main information of the game – Ronaldo missed a penalty when the young Irish keeper Bazunu saved the spot kick and then it goes on to describe the opening goal for the Irish side. Interestingly, the verb form used here is ‘for what would have been‘ which means that it did not happen – there was no famous or deserved victory. Ireland very rarely win away against any of the top international sides which is why it was described as famo...