Learn English Through Football Podcast: Champions League 2026-27 Opening Week
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In this podcast we focus on some football language to describe the action in this week’s Champions League first round matches. We will also look at some big games coming up in the Premier League, Manchester United versus Manchester City and the English League Cup round of 16. You can read the transcript below, read some teaching tips on how to use these materials, check out our glossary here, or browse all our previous posts and podcasts.
For Teachers ▸ how to use this episode in class
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- Vocabulary: Ask students about any words they know about winning in football.
- Vocabulary (2): Prepare a matching exercise for some of the key terms to prepare the students for the listening (e.g. Turn on the style’; ‘cruise past’; ‘ease past’; ’emphatic win’ and ‘comprehensive victory)
- Listening for gist (main idea): Play the first part of Damian’s section on the Champions League and ask students to take notes on what they hear (maybe the four different matches and their scores?)
- Listening for details (1): Prepare a short vocabulary listening exercise – maybe create a gap-fill for some of the key terms you want the students to practise.
- Listening for details (2): Alternatively you could focus on connected language examples or some functional language (e.g. verb forms).
- Re-telling: Ask students to re-tell the information to their colleagues.
- Writing: Ask students to choose a match with a big score and write a short match report using some of the words and phrases from today’s listening.
- Share with other teachers how you are using these resources (vocabulary, listening, writing, etc.) on our teachers’ forum page
Hello
You’re listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast
DB: Hello there everyone. How are you doing? I hope you are all well. My name is Damon and I am one half of the Learn English through Football team and based in Tokyo. The other half of the team is Damian who enjoyed a wonderful week in France, mixing football, food, and fine dining. Lucky him!
DF: Hello everyone. Yes, I am now back in London after a great break in France where I managed to see three different Ligue 1 matches including a trip to the Velodrome to see Marseille take on Paris FC which was an amazing atmosphere. Luckily, I also didn’t see any of Tottenham’s games as our poor start to the Premier league season continues.
DB: Last week’s podcast focused on the transfer market closing and both Damian and myself talked about how we thought our team’s had done. We both thought our clubs made some big changes, and I was happy to see some of them play well for Liverpool in new coach, Iraola’s first league win over Ipswich and a Champions League victory over Atletico Madrid. I thought Ronald Araújo especially played well in the right back cover, and another new signing, Jeremy Jacquet at centre back was also promising. There’s a long way to go though to see who won the transfer market!
Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English through football podcast (in Bemba, from Zambia)
Today’s Show
DB: Yes, you are listening to Languagecaster which was our previous name – we are now the Learn English through football podcast and that message was in Bemba. Right, on today’s show we are going to look at some expressions that we can use to describe some of the action in the opening round of the Champions League league phase. We’ll follow that with a review of our predictions from last week and a look at two big games, one from this weekend and another from mid week when we have the first Learn English through football derby of the season!
But to kick off, here’s Damian, with his thoughts on the opening week of the Champions League.
Champions League Opening Week: Easy Victories
DF: So, the first round of matches in this season’s Champions League took place last week and we thought it would be interesting to look at some of the language from those matches. First up, I am going to talk about some language to describe some of the big wins for some of the big teams in the competition.
- Barcelona defeated Feyenoord 5-1 and the BBC website reported that they ‘turned on the style‘ which means they easily beat the Dutch side. To turn on the style means that they played well, they scored a lot of goals and created a lot of chances with a lot of attacking play.
- Manchester United also had a big win when they beat debutants Sabah from Azerbaijan 4-0. They cruised past their opponents. So, to cruise past an opponent means that they easily beat the opponent; they didn’t seem to have to try too hard to beat their opponents.
- Another debutant in the competition is Como from Italy but they had an easy win over German team RB Leipzig and the BBC suggested that they ‘eased past Leipzig‘. So, it was an easy win for the Italian side.
- Finally, the holders PSG thrashed Slovan Bratislava 6-1 in their first game of the Champions League and the BBC described this as an ‘emphatic win‘. Another way of saying this would be a comprehensive victory which is when one team wins a game by a large number of goals.
So, we have heard lots of phrases that describe big or easy victories: ‘Turn on the style‘; ‘cruise past‘; ‘ease past’; ‘emphatic win‘ and ‘comprehensive victory‘. Can you think of any more phrases that describe big wins like these ones? We have added a few more at the end of the post here at Learn English through football.com.
Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English through football podcast (in English)
Hard-Fought Wins
DB: Yes, there were some comfortable wins in the first round of games in the league stage of the Champions League. Some were a little closer though and several teams had to battle hard to win their games; they were hard fought victories. Here is some language used to describe these close games.
- Real Madrid hung on to see off Inter 2-1. To hang on means to keep a lead despite the opposition causing a lot of threat. The Spanish side scored twice against the run of play but hung on, or clung on, to their lead to get the three points. To see off suggests that the winning team had to work hard to beat the opposition; it was not easy.
- Liverpool entertained, or hosted, Atletico Madrid, as I mentioned at the start of the show. They went one-nil down early on but came from behind to win it 2-1. We could also say they fought back from one-nil down to win the match.
- In another tight game, Arsenal did enough to win 1-0 away at Napoli. To do enough is to play only as well as is necessary to win. The team does not dominate the match or perform at the highest level.
So, while Damian focused on easy victories, we have just heard some phrases to talk about more difficult wins. What about the last time your team won, did they cruise past their opponents or did they see off their opponents? Did they turn on the syle or have to come from behind – or both?
OK, next up is our predictions review. Last week we looked at a London derby, Arsenal v Chelsea.
Predictions Review: Arsenal v Chelsea
Listen to our previous podcast on the transfer window here.
DB: Right, now this match was a really intense affair; both teams played attacking football and pressed the ball from the off. Chelsea stunned the home side with a second-minute goal, but Arsenal came from behind to win 2-1. Now I went for a 2-2 draw, so I was pretty close, but ultimately a solid display from Arsenal goalkeeper Raya kept Chelsea’s attack to that single goal.
Damian, who as a Spurs fan, is not keen on either Arsenal nor Chelsea, called the game perfectly, saying, ‘I think Arsenal will have too much for Chelsea – maybe 2-1 to the Gunners’. Well done Damian.
It’ll be interesting to see the return game at Stamford Bridge later in the season.
OK, next is our prediction section for this week. Both myself and Damian try and predict (or guess) the result of some big games each weekend and this week we have the Manchester Derby in the Premier League and the Learn English Through Football derby, that’s Damian’s Tottenham visiting my team, Liverpool in the League Cup, now called the Carabao Cup.
Predictions: Manchester United v Manchester City
DB: First up, is the Manchester derby. I’m going for an away win for City. They have a perfect record so far and I think they will maintain that record with an exciting win; with Haaland on the scoresheet again. Damian?
DF: A tricky one to call. City have started well but United usually raise themselves for this derby and they are at home. So, I think this will finish in a draw – maybe 1-1.
Predictions: Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur
DB: OK, and next is the last 16 in the League Cup with Tottenham visiting Anfield. Both teams could do with some silverware this season and if Liverpool lift the cup in February it will be their eleventh! Can they beat Tottenham, the record book says yes with seven wins and three draws in the last 10 matches at Anfield. I think this will be another win, 1-0, but it’ll depend of course on the team selection.
DF: Yes, I don’t think we have got going yet in the new season. I’d take a draw but think we will lose this 2-0.
What do you think of our predictions? Don’t forget you can give your own on this week’s predictions thread on our forum.
Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English through Football Podcast (in Chichewa, from Malawi)
Contact
DF: Also, if you have any questions or comments about this week’s podcast or our football expression from earlier in the week, remember we talked about to whistle over the bar, you can drop us an email at contact@learnenglishthroughfootball.com, while you can also find us on Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram and YouTube. And we love to hear from our listeners and, of course, don’t forget to subscribe to our football-language podcasts.
Goodbye
DB: Right and that brings us the end of this week’s Learn English Through Football podcast. We focused on language to talk about easy or big wins and also how to describe some closer victories. We’ll be back mid-week with our short weekly football phrase podcast. Make sure to listen out for that. In the meantime, thanks and ta-ra!
DF: Bye everyone
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