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Football Language: Needle

In this post, we explain the football vocabularyA ‘Needle’. You can read the transcript for this post below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com

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Football Language: Needle

Needle is a non-countable noun. Needle is a feeling of hostility towards an opponent. It could be a personal rivalry, when a player does not like another player. It can also refer to when there is hostility, dislike, between two teams. If there is needle, it is stronger than rivalry, as it includes a feeling of dislike.

Example: Stoke’s alleged roughhouse tactics, Wenger’s protests and the Ryan Shawcross tackle that broke Aaron Ramsey’s leg in 2010 have created genuine needle between the two sides.A (The Telegraph, May 2017)

Example:A Austria captain Christian Fuchs admitted a€œthere is needle given the history between the countriesa€ (Austria and Hungary). (The Guardian, June 2016)

Learn English Through Football Podcast
Learn English Through Football Podcast
Damian Fitzpatrick

Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills

Hosted by
grell

I was born and brought up near Chester in the north west of England. I have always loved playing and talking about sport, especially football!
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