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Roberto Firmino

Matchweeks 19 & 20 - Stumble to defeat

Matchweeks 19 & 20 - Stumble to defeat

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of football action for learners of English from across the globe. In This Week, Jack and Rich talk about the latest action from the Premier League. They keep you up to date with our prediction competition and have lots of football English for you to learn.

Transcript

If the listening is a bit difficult, try listening and reading at the same time.
Read the transcript and listen at the same time.

Matchweeks 19 & 20

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. We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

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

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

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

Jack: There have been lots of matches over the holiday period in the UK so we’ve got two Matchweeks to cover. Matchweek 19 and Matchweek 20. 

Jack: Let’s start with our headlines!

Headlines

Rich: Liverpool stretch their lead at the top.

Jack: The Reds are now seven points clear of Manchester City. On Boxing Day, the 26th of December, they hammered Newcastle and four days later demolished Arsenal 5-1. A nice Christmas present for all their fans.

Rich: City and Spurs stumble.

Jack: Both Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur failed to keep up with Liverpool’s winning run. City fell to defeat against Leicester City in Matchweek 19 while Wolves stunned Spurs with a 3-1 win at Wembley Stadium in Matchweek 20.

Rich: Ole bringing the good times back to Old Trafford.

Jack: It’s three wins out of three for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United. United put three past Huddersfield and four past Bournemouth to make it 12 goals in the last three matches for United.

Rich: The matches have been coming thick and fast over the last few days. It’s hard to keep up sometimes.

Jack: Yes, it is. The next round of matches - matchweek 21 - kicks off on New Year’s Day!

Vocabulary alert!

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

Jack: Our six words and phrases this week are: to stretch, to hammer, to demolish, to stumble, to fall to defeat, and to stun.

Rich: Let’s start with the word stretch.

Jack: Liverpool have stretched their lead at the top of the table. Liverpool have extended their lead, it has got bigger. It was four points it’s now seven points.

Rich: The next two words are hammer and demolish. These are similar to destroy and are used when one team beats another by a big scoreline such as 4four or five nil.

Jack: To stumble means to fall or almost fall to the ground when you are running. It can also mean to fail at something temporarily.

Rich: City stumbled against Leicester but they got back to winning in their next match.

Jack: Spurs fell to defeat against Wolves. Fell to defeat is another, more poetic way of saying a team lost. 

Rich: It was a big surprise that Wolves beat Spurs. We can say Wolves stunned Spurs. To stun someone can mean to surprise or shock someone. 

Jack: Spurs fans were definitely stunned by that 3-1 defeat.

Rich: Have a think about these phrases and see if you can use any of them in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

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: These awards cover two matchweeks. Matchweek 19 & Matchweek 20.

Rich: Let’s start with Player of the Week. There have been some great performances over the last two matchweeks. Roberto Firmino got a hat-trick, Cardiff’s Phillipino goalkeeper has been in great form for Cardiff City and N’Golo Kante has been superb for Chelsea. 

Jack: But our Player of the Week is Paul Pogba. Four goals in his last two matches for Manchester United. Pogba is a player revitalised under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Rich: What about our Team of the Week?

Jack: There were only three teams to win both their festive fixtures; Manchester United, Chelsea and our Team of the Week … Liverpool.

Rich: The Reds are flying at the moment. Finally our Goal of the week. There were 59 goals in matchweeks 19 and 20 and some great strikes.

Jack: Our Goal of the Week goes to Leicester CIty’s Ricardo Pereira. It was a great strike and absolutely stunned Manchester City who stumbled to a 2-1 defeat. 

Matchweek Prediction 

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

Rich: This week you have to be fast because the match is on Thursday the third of January.

Jack: It’s a big one, isn’t it?

Rich: Yes, it’s possibly the biggest match of the season. Liverpool travel to Manchester to face City at the Etihad Stadium. Liverpool could stretch their lead to an amazing 10 points with a win. It should be a fabulous match with a lot of attacking football. I think Liverpool can do it. They are the form team and City have stumbled a few times recently. I think the final score will be Manchester City 1 - 2 Liverpool.

Jack: I think you’re starting to show a little bit of bias. City really need to win this one and I think they will which will make the title race very exciting. I think City will win 2-1.

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.

Results

Matchweek 19:

Fulham 1-1 Wolves

Burnley 1-5 Everton

Crystal Palace 0-0 Cardiff City

Leicester City 2-1 Manchester City

Liverpool 4-0 Newcastle Utd 

Manchester Utd 3-1 Huddersfield

Tottenham 5-0 Bournemouth

Brighton 1-1 Arsenal

Watford 1-2 Chelsea

Southampton 1-2 West Ham

Matchweek 20:

Brighton 1-0 Everton

Fulham 1-0 Huddersfield

Leicester City 0-1 Cardiff City

Tottenham 1-3 Wolves

Watford 1-1 Newcastle Utd

Manchester Utd 4-1 Bournemouth

Liverpool 5-1 Arsenal

Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea

Burnley 2-0 West Ham

Southampton 1-3 Manchester City

Tottenham Hotspur RECORDED their best win of the season against Everton.

Vocabulary Alert

Football English

We looked at six words phrases in this episode. Take a look at the phrases in bold. Do you undertand what they mean?

Liverpool stretch their lead at the top.

On Boxing Day, the 26th of December, Liverpool hammered Newcastle and four days later demolished Arsenal 5-1.

Liverpool are the form team while City have stumbled a few times recently

City fell to defeat against Leicester City in Matchweek 19.

Wolves stunned Spurs with a 3-1 win at Wembley Stadium.

Can you use the words in bold in a different sentence? Write a sentence at the bottom of the page. If you're not sure, listen to the audio for more explanations and examples.

Raul Jimenez's goal for Wolves sent Tottenham stumbling to a shock defeat.

Matchweek Awards

Do you agree with our choices?

Player of the Week: Paul Pogba (Manchester United)

Paul Pogba has scored four goals in his last two matches.

Team of the Week: Liverpool

Liverpool have stretched their lead at the top to seven points.

Goal of the Week: Ricardo Pereira (Leicester City)

Ricardo Pereira's goal for Leicester stunned Manchester City.

The Big Matches

Manchester City v Liverpool

Matchweek 21 sees one of the biggest matches of the season. Manchester City play Liverpool. Rich and Jack have made their predictions. Do they surprise you?

What are your predictions? Have a listen to what Rich and Jack say and then enter our prediction competition below. You get one point for the correct result and three points for predicting the exact score.

Where are you in our prediction league?

Who will be our Premier League Prediction Champion?

Form

Premier League Prediction: Manchester City v Liverpool

Use this form to make your prediction. You can only make one prediction so take care! When you have made your predictions, the form will vanish.

You need to be logged in to make your prediction!

Check out the league table for our prediction competition. What position are you in?

See results table

Four Questions

What do you think?

Jack and Rich have spoken about Matchweeks 19 and 20 in the Premier League. Now it's your turn! Have a look at the questions and write your answers in the comments section below.

  1. Rich and Jack chose Paul Pogba of Manchester Utd as Player of the Week. Do you agree? 
  2. Jack and Rich selected Liverpool as their Team of the Week. Do you agree?
  3. Rich picked Ricardo Pereira's goal for Leicester City as Goal of the Week? Did you see it? Do you agree?
  4. Use this week's vocabulary: Do you think Liverpool will continue to stretch their lead at the top? Will Liverpool and City make a few stumbles this season? What's the most stunning result you can remember?

Don't forget to make your prediction for this week's Big Match!

Let's get the conversation started and create a community!

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Comments

hsn's picture
hsn
14/02/2022
TR
5557
points

Phrases
• She failed to keep up with the competitor who leading race and became runner-up.
• While striker was close to score after a long range run suddenly stumbled at the end of the match his team failed to defeat opponent.
• Company has stretched its market share by focusing on the R&D, research and development and producing high tech-based products.


hsn's picture
hsn
14/02/2022 14:47
Turkey
Tottenham Hotspur
5557

Phrases
• She failed to keep up with the competitor who leading race and became runner-up.
• While striker was close to score after a long range run suddenly stumbled at the end of the match his team failed to defeat opponent.
• Company has stretched its market share by focusing on the R&D, research and development and producing high tech-based products.

Khaldoun83's picture
Khaldoun83
03/01/2019
DZ
325
points

1- I totally agree with your choices for both team of the week and goal of the week but I don't agree with you when it comes to player of the week because I think that Roberto Firminho was better than Paul Pogba.

2- I predict the first defeat for Liverpool this season when they play against Manchester city, this last will not permit their rival to stretch his lead to 10 points. By the way, I'm still considering that the race title will be between these two clubs.


Khaldoun83's picture
Khaldoun83
03/01/2019 14:04
Algeria
Liverpool
325

1- I totally agree with your choices for both team of the week and goal of the week but I don't agree with you when it comes to player of the week because I think that Roberto Firminho was better than Paul Pogba.

2- I predict the first defeat for Liverpool this season when they play against Manchester city, this last will not permit their rival to stretch his lead to 10 points. By the way, I'm still considering that the race title will be between these two clubs.

Rafael Robson's picture
Rafael Robson
01/01/2019
BR
615
points

First, have a good new year Jack and Rick!

I think all of your choices are really good but I would have chosen Roberto Firmino as the player of the week or maybe his second goal against Arsenal as goal of the week, both in Matchweek 20.
The way Liverpool hammered Arsenal was amazing but I think they won't stretch their lead falling to defeat City. After some stumbling matches, City cannot lose again.
The most stunning result this season was City 2 Palace 3.


Rafael Robson's picture
Rafael Robson
01/01/2019 20:59
Brazil
Tottenham Hotspur
615

First, have a good new year Jack and Rick!

I think all of your choices are really good but I would have chosen Roberto Firmino as the player of the week or maybe his second goal against Arsenal as goal of the week, both in Matchweek 20.
The way Liverpool hammered Arsenal was amazing but I think they won't stretch their lead falling to defeat City. After some stumbling matches, City cannot lose again.
The most stunning result this season was City 2 Palace 3.

elghoul's picture
elghoul
01/01/2019
DZ
3988
points

1. Another award for the World Cup winner Paul Pogba, it is great and much deserved.

2. Liverpool is the team of the week this time again.

3. Ricardo Pereira scored a winning goal while playing very well.

4. Liverpool is in a good run but I don't think they will stretch their lead further. They can also make a stumble perhaps as soon as their next match.


elghoul's picture
elghoul
01/01/2019 12:46
Algeria
Manchester City
3988

1. Another award for the World Cup winner Paul Pogba, it is great and much deserved.

2. Liverpool is the team of the week this time again.

3. Ricardo Pereira scored a winning goal while playing very well.

4. Liverpool is in a good run but I don't think they will stretch their lead further. They can also make a stumble perhaps as soon as their next match.

assemjuve's picture
assemjuve
01/01/2019
PS
3705
points

I think that both Man City and Liverpool will both stumble as the season still has nearly 18 games until it ends,well the most shocking result I can remember was Roma defeating Barcelona and qualifying to the semi final of the champions league,i was amazed.


assemjuve's picture
assemjuve
01/01/2019 09:59
Palestinian Territory
Liverpool
3705

I think that both Man City and Liverpool will both stumble as the season still has nearly 18 games until it ends,well the most shocking result I can remember was Roma defeating Barcelona and qualifying to the semi final of the champions league,i was amazed.

assemjuve's picture
assemjuve
01/01/2019
PS
3705
points

Well,i do agree that Liverpool was the best team last matchweek due to their brilliant performance and stretching the points difference between them and Man City.Moreover i agree that Ricardo Periera goal that was scored against Man City was the best goal,this player is getting used to play in the premiere league and he is doing very well.With all due respect,I have got to disagree with you choosing Pogba as the player of the week,I think it was Firminio who deserves to be player of the week especially after scoring a hattrick against Arsenal,this player is gold.


assemjuve's picture
assemjuve
01/01/2019 09:56
Palestinian Territory
Liverpool
3705

Well,i do agree that Liverpool was the best team last matchweek due to their brilliant performance and stretching the points difference between them and Man City.Moreover i agree that Ricardo Periera goal that was scored against Man City was the best goal,this player is getting used to play in the premiere league and he is doing very well.With all due respect,I have got to disagree with you choosing Pogba as the player of the week,I think it was Firminio who deserves to be player of the week especially after scoring a hattrick against Arsenal,this player is gold.

hipchin
01/01/2019
JP
47
points

1. No, I don't. I think Player of the week is Marcus Rashford. His first assist for Pogba was amazing!

2. Yes I do.

3. Yes I did. I saw it. But I can't agree with you. because I think Goal of the week is Harry Kane's goal.


hipchin
01/01/2019 06:40
Japan
Manchester United
47

1. No, I don't. I think Player of the week is Marcus Rashford. His first assist for Pogba was amazing!

2. Yes I do.

3. Yes I did. I saw it. But I can't agree with you. because I think Goal of the week is Harry Kane's goal.

Leaderboard

Top Scorers
RankNameScore
1Alex_from_Ukraine6573
2mobeckham6536
3hsn5557
4wsanta5086
5kwesimanifest4779
6Liubomyr4417
7elghoul3988
8assemjuve3705
9aragorn19863557
10Gergő Nagy3396
Country ranking
RankNameScore
1Colombia74670
2Ukraine33836
3Spain29439
4Serbia27426
5Brazil23401
6Albania20578
7Vietnam20437
8Turkey20095
9Macedonia19074
10Bosnia and Herzegovina16333
Club ranking
RankNameScore
1Manchester United146586
2Liverpool111234
3Chelsea90125
4Arsenal86324
5Manchester City58726
6Tottenham Hotspur19418
7Newcastle United10560
8West Ham United7667
9AFC Bournemouth4915
10Everton4533

Level

3
Average: 3 (1 vote)

Goals

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