This Week: Luckless Liverpool lose in London

Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to the weekly round-up called This Week on Premier Skills English.

In This Week, we’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

If you are listening to this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify you can also visit the Premier Skills English website at premierskillsenglish.britishcouncil.org where you’ll be able to download the podcast.

On the Premier Skills English website, you can read the transcript and join the Premier Skills English community by completing a language task in the comments section. This will really help you remember the new words and phrases from the story from the Premier League.

Thank you to everyone who wished me well as I was recovering my voice last week. I am feeling much better now.

In today’s podcast, I am going to talk about a very exciting match that was full of drama and that Liverpool were very unlucky to have lost.

The phrases I am going to talk about are:

• the stakes were high
• reckless
• a stroke of bad luck
• the decision was upheld
• to add insult to injury
• to put it on a plate
• to redeem yourself
• to deserve credit

Listen out for this vocabulary in the story.

After the story there will be a language focus and then there will be a language challenge for you to complete and then at the end of the podcast there will be a new football phrase.

But before that, I want to look at last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last week, here’s one more chance to guess now.

Last week’s football phrase was a bad day at the office. This is a funny football cliche that the commentators used to talk about Sheffield United’s performance from the perspective of the manager. You can use this phrase to say that a performance reflects badly on a manager. I have read that it can be used to talk about a poor performance in sports for players and managers, but I think it’s more commonly used to talk about a manager’s performance.

Congratulations to AndreTorre102 from Brazil, Eshaan Shabeer form India, Vietnguyenngo from Vietnam, Hasan from Turkey, Vinicius 77 from Brazil, Denis2000 from Belarus, Satt from Japan and Mobeckham from Turkey.

You all managed to work out the phrase I was looking for, which was a bad day at the office.

Keep listening till the end of the podcast for a new football phrase.

Now it’s time for the story.

Luckless Liverpool lose in London

When Spurs hosted Liverpool last Saturday, they hadn’t beaten the Reds in a League match since 2017. Both clubs went into the match unbeaten so far in the Premier League. So fans on both sides knew that the stakes were high and had high expectations.

When the referee started the match, both teams went for it. It was a very pacy end-to-end start to the game. Both teams created good chances early on. Richarlison played a beautiful ball across the mouth of the goal that was just out of reach of Madisson and shortly afterwards Spurs’ keeper Vicario was forced to make two good saves.

After 26 minutes, Liverpool had their first bit of bad luck. Curtis Jones made a lunge for the ball and caught the ball too high and when his foot rolled over the top, he made contact with Bissouma’s ankle. On the VAR monitor it looked horrible and it was a bad tackle, but I’m not sure that Jones was being reckless. However, the referee looked at the monitor and saw Jones’ boot on Bissouma’s ankle and was convinced enough to take out his red card. Liverpool were down to 10 with over an hour to play.

And then there was a decisive moment. This was the second stroke of bad luck for the visitors. Salah was on the ball but was struggling with a defender. Salah saw an opportunity to poke the ball through for Luis Diaz who ran on and fired the ball into the net.

But ... the assistant referee’s flag was up. There was a VAR check and the goal was disallowed. But at the time, the commentators didn’t think it was offside. Later, the VAR team released the audio recording of the event and this revealed that through poor communication, the decision to disallow the goal was upheld. The VAR team said that ‘it’s good’, meaning the goal was good, but the referee thought that meant the decision was good and Liverpool were denied the lead.

To add insult to injury, Spurs then took the lead. A well-placed through ball enabled Richarlison to put it on a plate for Son who tapped in from close range.

Just before halftime, Cody Gakpo equalised, with an impressive strike after a dramatic 180 degree turn. Unfortunately, this acrobatic move aggravated an injury Gakpo had just picked up and shortly afterwards he was subbed off for Diogo Jota.

Liverpool’s bad luck didn’t end there. In the 68th minute, Jota was shown a yellow card for a foul on Udogie, but there really wasn’t any contact. Jota was chasing Udogie and there was a small contact when Jota’s knee grazed Udogie’s heel when they were both sprinting down the wing. This contact interrupted Udogie’s stride and he then tripped over his own feet and went tumbling to the ground.

Less than two minutes later, Jota was being crowded by two Spurs players who won the ball from him. In a desperate attempt to redeem himself, Jota dived for the ball and missed earning a second yellow and an early shower. Jota should have been more careful as he was on a yellow, but as the first card was unfair, I’m still calling this unlucky for Liverpool.

Liverpool were down to nine. They deserve credit for hanging on to the draw right up until the last minute of the match. In the 96th minute, they suffered a final stroke of misfortune. Joel Matip was running into the box to defend just as Pedro Porro fired a cross into the middle. The timing was impossible. The ball flew into Matip’s stride and ricocheted into the goal.

Final score: Tottenham Hotspur 2 - Liverpool 1

The words and phrases from the story that I want to talk about are:

• the stakes were high
• reckless
• a stroke of bad luck
• the decision was upheld
• to add insult to injury
• to put it on a plate
• to redeem yourself
• to deserve credit

The stakes were high

We use the phrase the stakes are high to say that the outcome of a situation is very important. So when the possible outcomes of a situation are either very good or very bad, the stakes for the situation are high. The phrase comes from gambling. The stakes refers to the money that you risk when you gamble. So if you risk a lot of money, then the stakes are high. In regular, non-gambling uses, we mean there is a risk of something bad happening. So in business, if a company makes a very big deal, there is sometimes a risk that if it falls through, the business will fail, but if it succeeds, the owners will make a lot of money. In a situation like this, you could say that the stakes are high.

Reckless

The adjective reckless is quite hard to explain. When someone has an accident, sometimes, it’s just bad luck. But if the accident happened because someone was not paying enough attention or was not taking care, then they were reckless. My children think that accidents are not anyone’s fault and that if something was an accident, then they shouldn’t be told off. If someone does something dangerous without thinking about the risks and what could go wrong then they are reckless.

A stroke of bad luck

We use the word stroke to talk about an event or incident that is lucky or unlucky. You can have a stroke of luck, meaning an incident of good luck or a stroke of bad luck. I’m not sure why we use the word stroke. I think the phrase originated in French and was translated into English. The noun stroke comes from the verb to strike meaning to hit. I said that Liverpool had a stroke of bad luck and then later they had a stroke of misfortune. These phrases mean the same thing.

The decision was upheld

If you look up the verb to uphold in the dictionary, you will find it means to defend a law or decision. The collocation to uphold a decision is quite common in football English because of the use of VAR. The referee will make a decision on the pitch and then there may be an appeal. This means that the referee will have to review and talk to the VAR team. If after reviewing the video and looking at the screen the referee changes the decision they made, you can say that the decision was overturned. But if the referee sticks to their original decision then the decision is upheld.

To add insult to injury

The phrase to add insult to injury is an idiomatic expression that describes something bad that happens after another bad thing has happened. So if something horrible happens to someone and then something else, another horrible thing happens, we can say that the second horrible thing added insult to injury. This phrase is usually used before describing a second negative event.

For example, if someone loses their job and has to collect all their personal belongings and walk out of the building if they get to their car and discover that they have a flat tyre, you could say and when he got outside, to add insult to injury, he had a flat tyre.

To put it on a plate

In football English, this phrase means to provide someone with a really easy goal-scoring opportunity. In general, it means to make something really easy for someone so that they don’t have to work or make an effort to do it. It’s most commonly used in sport, but it is also used in business if a deal is really easy or if someone is given a good job without having to work hard to get it.

To redeem yourself

We use the verb to redeem to describe an act that makes a bad situation less bad. So you can say that a bad situation, perhaps a poor performance by a football team was redeemed by an act or event that made it better. In the case of a poor performance by a football team, it might be a good performance by one member of the team. I used the phrase redeem himself. We use redeem with reflexive pronouns to say that someone who performed badly did something to make people judge them less harshly. It is used in a similar way to the phrase to make amends. So if a player makes a mistake and the opposition scores, they might redeem themselves later if they score a goal.

To deserve credit

If a person deserves credit, they have done something that people should recognise was good. To credit someone or to give someone credit means to let everyone know that someone is responsible for something, usually a good thing, like a victory or a good performance. At the end of a film, the credits is a list of all the people who worked on the film. But for most performances or events, there is no formal way to give someone credit. In football, there are records of goalscorers and assists and there’s even a man of the match award that credits the most important performance. For the rest of the team, their credit is only in the minds of the people who watched the game. So even if there is no official way to credit someone, you can still say that someone deserves credit for their performance if they were responsible for the team’s success.

Today, I’ve spoken about 8 useful words and phrases. The phrases I have spoken about are:

• the stakes were high
• reckless
• a stroke of bad luck
• the decision was upheld
• to add insult to injury
• to put it on a plate
• to redeem yourself
• to deserve credit

Listen to the story one more time to hear the phrases in context. 

Luckless Liverpool lose in London

When Spurs hosted Liverpool last Saturday, they hadn’t beaten the Reds in a League match since 2017. Both clubs went into the match unbeaten so far in the Premier League. So fans on both sides knew that the stakes were high and had high expectations.

When the referee started the match, both teams went for it. It was a very pacy end-to-end start to the game. Both teams created good chances early on. Richarlison played a beautiful ball across the mouth of the goal that was just out of reach of Madisson and shortly afterwards Spurs’ keeper Vicario was forced to make two good saves.

After 26 minutes, Liverpool had their first bit of bad luck. Curtis Jones made a lunge for the ball and caught the ball too high and when his foot rolled over the top, he made contact with Bissouma’s ankle. On the VAR monitor it looked horrible and it was a bad tackle, but I’m not sure that Jones was being reckless. However, the referee looked at the monitor and saw Jones’ boot on Bissouma’s ankle and was convinced enough to take out his red card. Liverpool were down to 10 with over an hour to play.

And then there was a decisive moment. This was the second stroke of bad luck for the visitors. Salah was on the ball but was struggling with a defender. Salah saw an opportunity to poke the ball through for Lucas Diaz who ran on and fired the ball into the net.

But ... the assistant referee’s flag was up. There was a VAR check and the goal was disallowed. But at the time, the commentators didn’t think it was offside. Later, the VAR team released the audio recording of the event and this revealed that through poor communication, the decision to disallow the goal was upheld. The VAR team said that ‘it’s good’, meaning the goal was good, but the referee thought that meant the decision was good and Liverpool were denied the lead.

To add insult to injury, Spurs then took the lead. A well-placed through ball enabled Richarlison to put it on a plate for Son who tapped in from close range.

Just before halftime, Cody Gakpo equalised, with an impressive strike after a dramatic 180 degree turn. Unfortunately, this acrobatic move aggravated an injury Gakpo had just picked up and shortly afterwards he was subbed off for Diogo Jota.

Liverpool’s bad luck didn’t end there. In the 68th minute, Jota was shown a yellow card for a foul on Udogie, but there really wasn’t any contact. Jota was chasing Udogie and there was a small contact when Jota’s knee grazed Udogie’s heel when they were both sprinting down the wing. This contact interrupted Udogie’s stride and he then tripped over his own feet and went tumbling to the ground.

Less than two minutes later, Jota was being crowded by two Spurs players who won the ball from him. In a desperate attempt to redeem himself, Jota dived for the ball and missed earning a second yellow and an early shower. Jota should have been more careful as he was on a yellow, but as the first card was unfair, I’m still calling this unlucky for Liverpool.

Liverpool were down to nine. They deserve credit for hanging on to the draw right up until the last minute of the match. In the 96th minute, they suffered a final stroke of misfortune. Joel Matip was running into the box to defend just as Pedro Porro fired a cross into the middle. The timing was impossible. The ball flew into Matip’s stride and ricocheted into the goal.

Final score: Tottenham Hotspur 2 - Liverpool 1

Language Challenge

Right, now it’s time for you to think about the language again. I have found examples of the words and phrases in stories online and edited them slightly. I have removed today’s vocabulary so I want you to fill in the gaps with the correct form of the language from the podcast. In a couple of cases, you need to change the form of the verbs.

Number 1. Brighton busker returns after three _________________. The busker, who has had three pianos stolen in the dead of night, is back behind the keys.

Number 2. After losing her job, Sarah's landlord decided to raise the rent on her apartment, __________________ in an already difficult time.

Number 3. After making a serious mistake at work, Susan worked tirelessly to ______________ in the eyes of her colleagues and supervisor by taking on extra responsibilities and ensuring the project's success.

Number 4. Before the final round of negotiations, everyone in the room understood that the _______________. A successful deal could secure the company's future, but failure would likely lead to bankruptcy.

Number 5. Chris had been struggling to find a job for months, but when his friend offered him a position at their company, it was like they ______________ for him.

Number 6. A ________ motorist caused a crash that left a young woman with a life-changing condition.

Number 7. Generation Z _________ some _________ for responsible card use. The youngest adults are using credit cards more responsibly than their older peers, even during the current period of high inflation

Number 8. Southampton Council has __________its _________ to close its last care home despite protests from campaigners.

Leave your answers to the language challenge in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Football phrase

Now it’s time for this week's football phrase.

This week’s football phrase is ** ***** ******. This phrase is used in football when a player is shown a red card and they have to leave the pitch. It’s a fun expression that suggests that the player will be the first one back in the changing room and will be able to clean up and get changed before their teammates.

If you know the answer, be sure to leave it in a comment on the page for this podcast on Premier Skills English.

Before I finish, I am going to go through the answers to last week’s language challenge.

Number 1. A late header from Mumbai City’s Jorge Diaz's helped his side salvage a point against Odisha FC.

Number 2. The CEO of the housewares company Wilko admitted that the ‘writing was on the wall’ as the high-street chain put 12,000 jobs at risk.

Number 3. Trump criticised the 'Fake News' for refusing to put a positive spin on the US coronavirus response, which left over 120,000 dead.

Number 4. Captured in January after three decades on the run, ruthless Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, has died in hospital in central Italy.

Number 5. Wrexham were thrashed 5-0 by Stockport as their unbeaten run ended.

Number 6. Kelly’s Castledaly side powered clear of Ballymore to claim a decisive victory.

Number 7. Greggs bosses made a humiliating mistake as they spruced up their Greggs store in Richmond, Yorkshire — and then decorated it with photos of Richmond, London.

Number 8. World leaders aim to get back on track in the global fight against tuberculosis.

And that’s all I have time for today. Before I finish, I just wanted to say that I hope you found this podcast useful, and I hope all of you stay fit and healthy and safe.

Bye for now and enjoy your football.