This Week: A glimmer of hope

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.

This week, I’m talking about Brentford’s trip to Turf Moor to take on Burnley in a match that both teams were desperate to win.

The words and phrases I am going to talk about today are:

• A glimmer of hope
• Reckless
• To chant
• To survive a scare
• To lunge
• To lose your footing
• Blunder
• To make your presence felt
• To lift someone’s spirits
• A monumental achievement

Listen out for this vocabulary in the story from the Premier League.

This was an interesting match and I wrote too much. I always make notes of interesting words and phrases when I watch the match and then write the story. Only sometimes, I write too much. So this week, I’m going to split the story into three parts. After each part, I will talk about some of the language and then after all three parts, there will be a language challenge and then at the end of the podcast there will be a new football phrase. Actually this week, there are two football phrases.

But before I get to the story, 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 ***** *****. This is an informal way to talk about the numbers that are produced when different aspects of a game are analysed. So the amount of possession that each team had or the number of corners or yellow and red cards. There are some companies that measure and calculate everything you could possibly think of and the numbers they produce are called the ***** *****.

Congratulations to LeoFabiano from Brazil. Welcome to Premier Skills English Leo. I have seen your answers to the language challenge, but this is the first time you have joined in with the football phrase so welcome! Congratulations to Vienguyenngo, thanks for pointing out the problem with the transcript Vietnguyenngo. Congratulations to Wojciech M from Poland, AndreTorre102 from Brazil, Denis2000 from Belarus, Bicooz from Egypt, Ranj from Norway, I haven’t seen you on here in ages, welcome back Ranj. Well done to Hasan from Turkey Ramadan Kareem to you and everyone celebrating Ramadan. Congratulations to Lukáš from Czechia and Ryohei from Japan.

You all worked out that the phrase I was looking for was match stats.

Keep listening till the end of the podcast for two new football phrases.

Now it’s time for this week’s story.

Burnley pick up a vital victory

Burnley welcomed Brentford on Saturday for a match that offered Burnley fans a glimmer of hope of survival.

Five minutes in, Burnley were in control and putting Brentford under pressure. Josh Cullen played a beautiful ball through to Vitinho who had got past Sergio Reguilón. Now this was Reguilón’s first start since recovering from a hamstring injury, but the Spaniard made a reckless challenge. He took down the Brazilian right in front of goal, and made no attempt to get to the ball. It took a few minutes for VAR to get the images to the screen for the referee, but once he’d seen them, there was no question. The referee made the VAR gesture and then pointed to the spot. Around the ground, the Burnley fans started to chant ‘off, off, off’ and as the referee walked back into the middle of the pitch, he reached into his pocket and dealt the Spaniard a straight red. Jacob Bruun Larsen stepped up for Burnley and scored with a sweetly struck penalty kick.

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

• A glimmer of hope
• Reckless
• To chant

A glimmer of hope

A glimmer of hope means a small feeling of optimism or that something that you want is possible. We often use language connected to light to talk about hope and positive feelings about the future. I think I have spoken about a ray of hope in the past. Well, the word glimmer describes a very small flicker of light. I usually think of the way light reflects off ripples of water. A glimmer of hope is not a lot of hope. It’s just a little bit of hope.

Reckless

The adjective reckless describes the way that someone acts when they act dangerously because they have not thought about what could go wrong. It’s very similar to the adjective careless. The difference is the level of danger. There isn’t a positive form of this adjective, like there is for careless. You can be careful, but you can’t be reckfull. I think that the word comes from the same root as the verb to reckon which means to judge. So the adjective kind of means acting in a dangerous way because you haven’t judged the situation.

To chant

To chant means to say the same thing over and over, usually in a rhythmic way and often with other people. People sometimes chant in religious ceremonies or at protests. I once went to a march where the American civil right activist Jesse Jackson made a speech and got the whole crowd chanting together. In the UK, however, this sort of crowd participation is not very common outside of football and sports matches.

Let’s get back to the story.

Burnley pick up a vital victory - part 2

Burnley survived a first half scare all of their own doing when a careless heavy back pass from Dara O’Shea almost crossed the goal line. Arijanet Muric had to sprint back and lunged to get the ball away. Ivan Toney ran on and almost scored, but Muric kept that out as well.

Towards the end of the half, David Datro Fofana ran onto Lorenz Assignon’s ball. Assignon did really well to get past Mathias Jenson on the edge of the box. He fired the ball through for Fofana who somehow mistimed his strike and missed the goal from less than two metres.

Not long after that, Mark Flekken in the Brentford goal was preparing to fire the ball down the pitch. The keeper had somehow missed that Fofana was behind him. He threw the ball in front of him to take the shot and Fofana made a cheeky run and stole the ball. However, in his excitement, Fofana lost his footing and this gave Flekken time to react and the Dutchman managed to get a foot to the ball before Fofana got the shot off.

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

• To survive a scare
• To lunge
• To lose your footing

To survive a scare

In this phrase, a scare means a scary of frightening situation. In football English, conceding a goal is probably the scariest thing. So if a team survives a scare, they managed to get past a situation where the other team had an advantage without conceding a goal. I said that Burnley survived a scare of their own doing because it was the result of a careless, or even reckless, back pass. O’Shea passed the ball back to his keeper without looking and Muric was miles away and really had to sprint to stop the ball going into the goal. It wasn’t an own goal so Burnley survived ... but it was close so it was a scary situation, they survived a scare.

To lunge

This verb means to move forwards, suddenly, usually with a leg or arm extended. You might lunge across the table to grab a bread roll or you might lunge at someone with a weapon if you are trying to attack them. There is also an exercise called a lunge which is a bit like a big step forwards, only you let one foot stay where it was and then sort of dip so all your weight is on your front leg. This is not the same as the verb, except you do move forwards dramatically when you do a lunge. So to do a lunge, you have to lunge forwards, but you can lunge in other situations as well.

To lose your footing

If you lose your footing, you stumble or fall over. Your footing describes how you are connected to the floor, how stable your feet are and how balanced you are. To lose this means you are not stable and you might stumble or fall. Fofana tooke the ball from Flekken and would have had a great opportunity to score, but he stumbled and fell to the ground, briefly. He hopped straight up again, but the time tio took him after he’d lost his footing was enough for Flekken to make a stab at the ball.

Let’s get back to the story.

Burnley pick up a vital victory - part 3

Fofana made amends for these blunders in the 62nd minute when he scored following a lightning counter attack. Sander Berger drove the ball forwards. He passed to Wilson Odobert who played through for Fofana who had timed his run to perfection before slotting the ball past Flekken and into the bottom corner of the goal.

Thomas Frank brought on Bryan Mbeumo and Shandon Baptiste in the 80th minute and the two substitutes immediately made their presence felt. Mbeumo had been out with an ankle injury since the start of December. Frank will welcome his return in time for the run in. Mbeumo collected the ball near the corner flag and drew the Burnley defenders towards him. He passed the ball to Baptiste who fired in a cross with his first touch for Kristoffer Ajer who scored with a header.

The goal lifted Brentford’s spirits and the Bees came close, actually having a goal disallowed after Toney got a bit too close to Muric. But in the end, they weren’t able to overcome Burnley’s advantage.

I’m not a Burnley fan, but I do like them and I would have liked them to have done better this season, and would like to see them survive in the league. However, having racked up 20 defeats from 29 games, if Burnley manage to stay up, it will be a monumental achievement. Before the match, the statistical analysis group Opta gave Burnley a 1% chance of staying up. They won this one so that number will have improved and I’m sure the fans were happy, but they were playing against a 10 man team.

Final score: Burnley 2 - Brentford 1

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

• Blunder
• To make your presence felt
• To lift someone’s spirits
• A monumental achievement

Blunder

A blunder is a careless or clumsy mistake. It’s quite a nice word to say blunder, it’s quite satisfying so I like the word, but I think that it’s connected with words like blunt and blind so is quite a negative term. I said that Fofana made amends for his blunders by scoring a goal in the 62nd minute. I have spoken about “make amends” in the past, it means to do something to make up for or to almost fix a problem that you might be responsible for.

To make your presence felt

This is quite an advanced phrase. It means to make other people aware that you are in a particular place. Often, it means to make people know that you exist. If you start a new job and perform really well, you will make your presence felt to your managers. I think that people normally make their presence felt by performing well or acting in a way that makes others notice them. I have a friend who is very ... sociable. He loves talking to people. Well, he loves talking. If you are ever in a meeting, perhaps at a party or any social event and this person is there, you will know it as he will dominate the conversation. Afterwards people might say that he certainly made his presence felt. In the story, I said that Baptiste and Mbeurmo made their presence felt when they were brought on in the 80th minute as substitutes. This is because they were instantly involved in the action and helped Brentford fight back.

To lift someone’s spirits

If you lift someone’s spirits, you make them feel positive or happy about something. I think we usually use the phrase when someone is feeling a bit sad about something and then something happens to make them feel better. Brentford were looking a bit downhearted because they were struggling to score, they were a man down and had conceded two goals. When Ajer headed home, Brentford looked a lot more positive. It was like the goal gave them hope of victory and so they started playing more positive attacking football. Ajer’s goal lifted the team’s spirits.

A monumental achievement

This is quite a strong collocation. An achievement is something positive that someone does, usually something that takes a lot of work and that other people respect. Passing a test, for example, especially if you pass with a very good mark, is an achievement. Monumental comes from the word monument. A monument is something like a statue or a building that was created to remember something or someone important. Most of the monuments in the UK are war memorials, I think. In most places, there are monuments that remember the names of people who died in wars. Usually, the First and Second World war. However, other famous buildings become monuments when they represent a time in history or are meaningful for other reasons. If something is monumental, it is really really important, and grand in the same way that monuments are grand. A monumental achievement is, therefore, a really really great achievement.

Today, I’ve spoken about 10 useful words and phrases.

The words and phrases were:

• A glimmer of hope
• Reckless
• To chant
• To survive a scare
• To lunge
• To lose your footing
• Blunder
• To make your presence felt
• To lift someone’s spirits
• A monumental achievement

Listen to the whole story one more time to hear this language in context.

Burnley pick up a vital victory

Burnley welcomed Brentford on Saturday for a match that offered Burnley fans a glimmer of hope of survival.

Five minutes in, Burnley were in control and putting Brentford under pressure. Josh Cullen played a beautiful ball through to Vitinho who had got past Sergio Reguilón. Now this was Reguilón’s first start since recovering from a hamstring injury, but the Spaniard made a reckless challenge. He took down the Brazilian right in front of goal, and made no attempt to get to the ball. It took a few minutes for VAR to get the images to the screen for the referee, but once he’d seen them, there was no question. The referee made the VAR gesture and then pointed to the spot. Around the ground, the Burnley fans started to chant ‘off, off, off’ and as the referee walked back into the middle of the pitch, he reached into his pocket and dealt the Spaniard a straight red. Jacob Bruun Larsen stepped up for Burnley and scored with a sweetly struck penalty kick.

Burnley pick up a vital victory - part 2

Burnley survived a first half scare all of their own doing when a careless heavy back pass from Dara O’Shea almost crossed the goal line. Arijanet Muric had to sprint back and lunged to get the ball away. Ivan Toney ran on and almost scored, but Muric kept that out as well.

Towards the end of the half, David Datro Fofana ran onto Lorenz Assignon’s ball. Assignon did really well to get past Mathias Jenson on the edge of the box. He fired the ball through for Fofana who somehow mistimed his strike and missed the goal from less than two metres.

Not long after that, Mark Flekken in the Brentford goal was preparing to fire the ball down the pitch. The keeper had somehow missed that Fofana was behind him. He threw the ball in front of him to take the shot and Fofana made a cheeky run and stole the ball. However, in his excitement, Fofana lost his footing and this gave Flekken time to react and the Dutchman managed to get a foot to the ball before Fofana got the shot off.

Burnley pick up a vital victory - part 3

Fofana made amends for these blunders in the 62nd minute when he scored following a lightning counter attack. Sander Berger drove the ball forwards. He passed to Wilson Odobert who played through for Fofana who had timed his run to perfection before slotting the ball past Flekken and into the bottom corner of the goal.

Thomas Frank brought on Bryan Mbeumo and Shandon Baptiste in the 80th minute and the two substitutes immediately made their presence felt. Mbeumo had been out with an ankle injury since the start of December. Frank will welcome his return in time for the run in. Mbeumo collected the ball near the corner flag and drew the Burnley defenders towards him. He passed the ball to Baptiste who fired in a cross with his first touch for Kristoffer Ajer who scored with a header.

The goal lifted Brentford’s spirits and the Bees came close, actually having a goal disallowed after Toney got a bit too close to Muric. But in the end, they weren’t able to overcome Burnley’s advantage.

I’m not a Burnley fan, but I do like them and I would have liked them to have done better this season, and would like to see them survive in the league. However, having racked up 20 defeats from 29 games, if Burnley manage to stay up, it will be a monumental achievement. Before the match, the statistical analysis group Opta gave Burnley a 1% chance of staying up. They won this one so that number will have improved and I’m sure the fans were happy, but they were playing against a 10 man team.

Final score: Burnley 2 - Brentford 1

Language challenge

Right, now it’s time for you to think about this language again. I have found examples of today’s words and phrases in stories online and edited them slightly. I have removed the vocabulary from the story so I want you to fill in the gaps with the correct forms of the language from the podcast.

Number 1. Despite the unexpected turbulence during the flight, the passengers were grateful to _________________ and land safely.

Number 2. The dancer ____________ during the performance but quickly regained her balance.

Number 3. Bruno regretted his ___________ spending spree when he saw his credit card bill.

Number 4. The artist's bold artwork made her ______________ in the local art community, garnering attention and acclaim.

Number 5. Completing the marathon was a ________________ for the runner, who had trained tirelessly for months.

Number 6. The boxer anticipated his opponent's ________ and quickly countered with a powerful jab.

Number 7. As the negotiations progressed, there was a ______________ for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Number 8. The unexpected visit from a friend helped _____________ during a challenging time.

Number 9. The chef's _________ in the kitchen resulted in a burnt dish that had to be remade.

Number 10. The fans erupted into _________ of support as their team scored the winning goal.

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

Football phrase

I have two football phrases this week. I haven’t done this on purpose, it’s just that there were two phrases from this week’s story that I want to use to challenge you.

The first is a ******** ***. This phrase describes the judgement of the referee when they send a player off, if the player has not been shown a yellow card first. This is for really serious fouls, for reckless fouls or for when a player blocks a clear goal scoring opportunity.

The second phrase is the *** **. This phrase means the final games of the season. We’re down to the last 10 games now and so newspapers are running stories on which teams face the most difficult *** ***. Arsenal has got quite a tough *** ** as they have some really hard matches coming up.

If you know the answers, be sure to leave them 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 Leicestershire Police detective has spoken of his determination to find answers for a young victim of abuse.

Number 2. Seeing the post office area so filthy did not sit well with Dimitri Coeter, so he took the initiative to clean it.

Number 3. The distinguished gentleman ran for his life - his clothes ripped, his hair dishevelled, a furious mob hot on his heels, baying for blood.

Number 4. Rashford said: I've already had some amazing experiences at this incredible club, but there is still a lot more to achieve and I remain relentlessly determined to win more trophies in the years ahead.

Number 5. When a junkyard worker in Asheville, North Carolina found a little cat inside a car that was scheduled to be crushed, he rescued her in the nick of time.

Number 6. Marcus Rashford silenced the Etihad with a screamer to open the scoring in the Manchester derby.

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 everyone stays fit and healthy and safe.

Bye for now and enjoy your football.