Learn English Through Football

On this football language podcast for learners of English we look back at some of the shock defeats from the first set of group matches in this season’s (2022-23) Champions League. You can read the 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.
Learn English Through Football Podcast: Shock Defeats – 2022-23 Champions League
DF: Hello again everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com – the football-language podcast for learners of English who love the beautiful game of football. I’m Damian and I am one half of the Languagecaster team, Damon the other team member is of course based in Japan. I am back in London after my trip to Ireland last week and the weather here is starting to become a little cooler as we move into Autumn. Now, as many of you will know, there are no Premier League matches this weekend due to the passing of the Queen here in the UK. But on today’s show we are going to look back at some of the language from the first set of group stage matches from this season’s Champions League and in particular at the phrase ‘shock defeat‘. Now, recently we have discussed the expression ‘heavy defeat‘ which is used to describe a thrashing – a really bad loss – but a shock defeat is one which is not expected at all, it is a surprise.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Irish)
Dinamo Zagreb 1 v 0 Chelsea
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Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb pulled off a big surprise or shock with their 1-0 home win against Chelsea. The home side have not done well in previous Champions League matches winning only five out of 43 so this result was a big shock indeed. The BBC report used the verb ‘to pull off a shock‘ which is another way of saying to shock; they shocked Chelsea with this victory. Indeed, this was such a shock that the Chelsea manager was sacked a couple of days later.
RB Leipzig 1 v 4 Shakhtar Donetsk
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So, in this Mirror report