pulsating Champions League tie, English clubs dominance in that competition, trouble in Malaysia, Manchester City and Luton all feature in this week’s Good, the Bad and the Ugly section of languagecaster’s football podcast. Click on the links below to find out more on all of these stories. Explanations of key vocabulary (in bold) can be found at the foot of the page.
Good
It has been a good week yet again for the English Premier League sides in the Champions League as three of the four places in the semi-finals will be taken by Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Strong performances from Arsenal and Manchester United saw them victorious against Villarreal and Porto respectively, while Chelsea made it after an extraordinary game indeed against Liverpool. Odd team out? That’s Barcelona who easily finished off Bayern Munich’s challenge. Exciting times indeed for the Champions League.
I’m going to stick with the Champions league and with the Chelsea v Liverpool game. What a treat for fans of football everywhere. While it wasn’t good to see my team lose, what drama and excitement in that game. Most people, me included, thought it was all over after the first leg, but we were in for a feast of open, passionate football from both teams. Eight goals and the result in the balance until the 89th minute. Fantastic! We should salute both teams for a game that will be hard to beat for drama for many years to come.
Bad
It’s been a bad week for Manchester City as they were outclassed by German side Hamburg in the UEFA Cup 1-3 last week and then followed that up with another 1-3 defeat this time at home to Fulham in the Premier League. Midfielder Steven Ireland claimed that players were hiding while manager Mark Hughes was booed by the City fans last week. So, troubled times for the richest club in the world.
Not the richest club in the world, but still bad for Luton Town as they are relegated from the football league. They faced an uphill struggle for survival this season after being docked a massive 30 points for financial irregularities and the struggle is finally over. A team that in the 80s was in the top flight will now try to get itself out of the semi-professional conference league.
Ugly
For my ugly story this week I turn to Malaysia and the Kelantan club have been banned form playing at home for the remaining 8 games of the Malaysian season after trouble on the pitch and fighting in the crowds in two recent matches. Pretty ugly indeed.
Vocabulary
pulsating: exciting, beating like a heart
finished off: ended, put a stop to
stick with : stay with, keep
salute: praise, honour
outclassed: easily beaten, shown to be weaker, put in place
uphill struggle: difficult (impossible) task, very hard job
docked: have points taken away, punished
banned: barred from, not allowed to play