Matchweek 31 & FA Cup: Back to the Drawing Board

Introduction  

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

Rich: Hi there. I’m Rich. In ‘This week’ we talk about all the latest action from the Premier League and we also look at some football English that you can use when speaking about football in English.

Jack: That’s right. We want to help you improve your English while we speak about one of your favourite topics - football!

Rich: We have a new episode every week and each time we have some new words and phrases for you to learn. So subscribe now and you’ll never miss an episode!

Jack: In every episode of This Week we want you to learn new phrases and practise them by interacting with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: We also have a second show. This is called the Premier Skills English Podcast. This is another weekly show that focusses more on your English skills.

Jack: We talk about different more general topics and help you with vocabulary, grammar and speaking.

Rich: But we always get a bit of football into the podcast, too.

Jack: Yes, we do. You can find all of our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If you’re looking for our Football English show called This week those are the episodes that begin with Matchweek 31 or Matchweek 30 and so on.

Rich: If you are looking for our more general podcast show. Those are the episodes that begin with Communication Skills or Learning Vocabulary or Understanding Grammar and so on.

Rich: If you listen to us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you can leave your comments or answers to the tasks and questions we give you in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

Jack: Remember that you can always find all our latest content on the Premier Skills English homepage or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page. 

Rich: Let’s start with our headlines!

Headlines

Jack: Liverpool back on top of Premier League.

Rich: Liverpool took advantage of Manchester City’s involvement in the FA Cup with a 2-1 win at Fulham that took them back to the top of the Premier League. They had to do it the hard way though. After an early goal from Sadio Mane, Fulham surprisingly equalised and it took a late James Milner penalty to seal all three points.

Jack: Wolves topple Manchester United in cup shock.

Rich: Raul Jimenez and Diogo Jota sent Wolves into their first FA Cup semi-final for over 20 years with a fine 2-1 win against Manchester United. The hosts dominated from start to finish and fully deserved their victory. It’s back to the drawing board for United who have missed out on the chance of Cup glory.

Jack: Weekend of comebacks for Premier League teams.

Rich: Manchester City and Brighton came back to win their cup quarter-finals and prevent a giant-killing against teams from lower divisions. City came back from 2-0 down to beat Swansea City 3-2. Brighton left it late to score twice in the last two minutes and finally beat Millwall on penalties. There was another comeback in the Premier League where West Ham came from 3-1 down to beat Huddersfield 4-3.

Jack: Great drama in some of those matches.

Rich: Yes, I love a late goal or two!

Vocabulary alert!

Jack: In our vocabulary alert, we look at some football English that we used in the headlines.

Rich: Our six words and phrases this week are: to seal, hosts, back to the drawing board, glory, a giant-killing, and to leave it late.

Jack; Let’s start with the verb to seal. In the headlines we said ‘it took a late James Milner penalty to seal all three points’.

Rich: To seal something means to close something like an envelope or to cover something up like a crack in a surface. Seal can mean to make something safe and secure. It can also mean to make something sure or definite.

Jack: Liverpool sealed all three points with that penalty. They made the game safe; they made sure of all three points with that penalty.

Rich: The next word is host or hosts. A host is usually the person who invites people to a party at their house.

Jack: We can also use it to describe an organisation or country that hosts an international event. Japan is going to host the Olympic Games.

Rich: In football, the hosts are the home team. 

Jack: The next word is glory. In football or a sporting context, glory is the fame or honour that people give to you for winning something.

Rich: Manchester United won’t have any cup glory this season now they have been knocked out. 

Jack: The next phrase is to leave it late. The meaning is obvious - it means to do something at the last minute and it’s used a lot in football when goals are scored near the end of the match.

Rich: Manchester City left it late against Swansea but they won the game.

Jack: The next phrase is giant-killing. This is a phrase we use in football too describe a small team beating a big team. Manchester City avoided a giant-killing against Swansea.

Rich: Our final phrase is an idiom and it’s back to the drawing board. This phrase means to start again after a plan has failed.

Jack: Manchester United have to go back to the drawing board after their defeat to Wolves.

Jack: Were any of the phrases new for you? See if you can use any of them at the bottom of the page in the comments section.

Football Awards

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

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

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

Rich: Let’s start with Player of the Week. There were some brilliant performances last weekend.

Jack: James Milner must have nerves of steel to take and score that late penalty for Liverpool, Wes Morgan got a late winner for Leicester and Javier Hernandez, Sergio Aguero and Solly March all came off the bench to rescue their teams.

Rich: But our Player of the Week is Wolverhampton’s Raul Jimenez. The Mexican striker was brilliant for Wolves as they looked like the team that should be in the Champions League rather than Manchester United.

Jack: The next award is for Team of the Week. We could go for Manchester City, Leicester, or Brighton for their late wins but we’re going to go for West Ham United.

Rich: The Hammers were 3-1 down with just 15 minutes left and won 4-3! What a performance!

Jack: Right, the final award is for Goal of the Week. Karlan Grant scored a cracking free-kick for Huddersfield Town and Andre Gray scored a great goal for Watford to send them into the semi-finals of the cup.

Rich: But our Goal of the Week goes to Newcastle United’s Matt Ritchie. It was a spectacular volley and rescued a point deep into injury time for the Geordies.

Matchweek Prediction 

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

Rich: Make your predictions on the Premier Skills English website. You get one point if you predict the right result and three points if you predict the right score.

Jack: There are no Premier League matches this weekend due to the international break so the next prediction is for Matchweek 32 on the first weekend of April.

Rich: And it’s another big one that will affect the title race and the battle for the top four. Liverpool are the hosts and Tottenham are the visitors. It will be a tight game but Tottenham have not been in great form recently despite remaining third and going through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. However, a team with Harry Kane, SOn Heung MIn and Christian Eriksen will always be a danger. Liverpool have returned to winning ways after dropping some points recently but looked back to their best against Bayern in Germany. I think home advantage will tell in this one and I’m going for a home win. Final score: Liverpool 2-1 Tottenham.

Jack: I think I’m going to agree with you but I think it’ll be more comfortable. Three-nil Liverpool for me.

Rich: 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 on the Premier Skills English website. 

Jack: If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, don’t forget to leave us a review. We’d love to hear from you.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.