Matchweek 7 - All square

Introduction  

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to our weekly round-up section called ‘This Week’ on Premier Skills English.  

Jack: Hi there. I’m Jack. That’s right. We’re going to discuss all the latest football action from Matchweek 7 in the Premier League.

Rich: And not only that, we’ve also got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

Jack: And we want you to use and practise these phrases by interacting with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Rich: You can find all our latest content on the Premier Skills English homepage or the Premier Skills - British Council Facebook page. 

Jack: Let’s start with this week’s headlines!

Headlines

Rich: The Champions go back to the top.

Jack: Manchester City returned to the top of the table after a comfortable 2-0 win against Brighton. It was all-square until Raheem Sterling scored on the half-hour mark. Sergio Aguero scored his 15th goal in his last 11 games at the Etihad to make the game safe in the second half.

Rich: Sturridge stunner saves Liverpool.

Jack: It looked like Liverpool were heading for their first defeat of the season after Eden Hazard scored a brilliant first-half goal for Chelsea. But, Daniel Sturridge, with virtually his first kick after coming on as a substitute, levelled things up with a scintillating long-range goal in the 89th minute.

Rich: United hammered in London.

Jack: Manchester United went down to a 3-1 defeat against West Ham at the London Stadium. Felipe Anderson opened the scoring after only five minutes and they were 2-0 up at the break after an own goal. Marcus Rashford scored with an amazing flick but there wasn’t going to be an equaliser. West Ham extended their lead through Marko Arnautovic just two minutes after Rashford scored.

Rich: Great win for West Ham.

Jack: Things not looking good for Manchester United at the moment. But, Liverpool were a bit lucky.

Rich: I don’t think it was luck, but it was definitely a bit late.

Vocabulary alert!

Rich: In our vocabulary alert, we look at some football English that we used in this week’s headlines.

Jack: The phrases this week are all connected to teams having the same number of goals in a match or points in the table.

Rich: The words and phrases are: draw, tie, equalise, all, all-square, and level things up.

Jack: We’ll start with the easier phrases and then look at the more difficult ones.

Rich: Some of these words can be verbs and nouns. Let’s start with the word ‘draw’ which is probably the one that you are most familiar with.

Jack: Draw can be a noun or a verb. The Chelsea-Liverpool match finished in a 1-1 draw. Here draw is a noun.

Rich: Chelsea and Liverpool drew 1-1. Here draw is a verb. It’s an irregular verb. Draw in the present, drew in the past and the third form or past participle is drawn.

Jack: The word tie is very similar to draw but is used more in American English. The match finished in a tie. The teams are tied one each at the break.

Rich: Tie can also be used to mean match or fixture. Usually, it’s used to describe a cup match or cup tie. Chelsea beat Liverpool 201 in a League Cup tie last week.

Jack: The word equalise describes a goal that makes the scores level. Daniel Sturridge equalised for Liverpool. He scored the equaliser.

Rich: Equalise is the verb and equaliser is the noun.

Jack: We often hear the word ‘all’ when describing results that are level. We say the match finished one all, two all or three all.

Rich: But we never say nil all or zero all. This is nil-nil or a goalless draw.

Jack: A general phrase for a draw is ‘all-square’. The match finished all-square means the match finished in a draw.

Rich: And finally, to level things up is a phrase that means to equalise. Daniel Sturridge levelled things up for Liverpool against Chelsea.

Jack: OK, your challenge now is to listen and see if you can hear any of these words and phrases in the rest of this podcast. 

Rich: The words you need to listen for are: draw, tie, equalise, all, all-square, and level things up.

Football Awards

Rich: Right, every week, we give out three Matchweek awards. 

Jack: The awards are Player of the Week, Team of the Week and Goal of the Week.

Rich: In the comments section, you need to tell us if you agree with our choices.

Jack: Not everyone agreed last week. Cityzen from the UK and Khaldoun from Algeria thought we should have chosen Manchester City rather than Burnley for our Team of the Week.

Rich: Let’s see who disagrees with our choices this week. Let’s start with this week’s Player of the Week.

Jack: Marko Arnautovic was great for West Ham, Eden Hazard was at the centre of everything for Chelsea and Harry Kane was back to his best for Spurs.

Rich: But, we’re going to go with Leicester’s Harry Maguire. A clean sheet and a great header for the big defender. Leicester are climbing the table and looking good.

Jack: Now, Team of the Week. City are back at the top of the table and Everton had a great win but we’re going for West Ham United for their 3-1 win against Manchester Utd.

Rich: And finally, our Goal of the Week. Marcus Rashford scored with a great flick for Manchester Utd, Sergio Aguero's goal for City was superb as was Hazard’s for Chelsea.

Jack: But our Goal of the Week is Daniel Sturridge’s goal for Liverpool against Chelsea. A fantastic effort. 

Matchweek Prediction 

Jack: Every week, Rich is going to predict the result of one Premier League match and we want you to make your prediction, too.

Rich: Lots of you made predictions last week for the  Chelsea - Liverpool match.

Jack: Well done to those of you who predicted a draw and a special well done to me! I went for a one all draw and that’s how it finished.

Rich: Well done you! 

Jack: Don’t overdo the congratulations, Rich! Right, what’s your prediction for this week.

Rich: This week’s big match is Liverpool against Manchester City. City went back to the top last week but they are only ahead of Liverpool on goal difference after Liverpool tied with Chelsea last weekend. This promises to be a great match and I’m predicting a lot of goals. It’s a very difficult match to predict and it would be easy to say that it will finish all-square but I’m going for a 3-2 win to Liverpool. I think Firmino, Salah and Mane will get a goal apiece and Aguero will level things up twice for City but Mane will get a late winner.

Jack: I hope you’re right as that sounds exciting but I’m going to go for a one all draw. Firmino for Liverpool and Sterling with the equaliser against his old club.

Rich: We will see. Make your predictions on the page below. You get one point if you predict the right result and three points if you predict the right score.

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for. I hope you have enjoyed this football round-up. Join the discussion at the bottom of the page. 

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.