Football Language: To leapfrog a team
We use the phrase ‘to leapfrog a team‘ (think of an image of a jumping frog!) when describing one team moving above another team in the league, so for example, when Leverkusen recently defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga they went (or jumped) above their opponents into third place – Mönchengladbach fell back to fifth position in the league. You might see the position in the league also mentioned in the phrase, so for example, Madrid leapfrogged Barcelona at the top or Spurs leapfrogged Arsenal into second place. So, to leapfrog an opponent means to go above them in the league.
- Example: ‘…but victory saw QPR leapfrog their opponents into the top half…’A (BBC February 2020).
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Example: Real Madrid leapfrog Barcelona at top of La Liga after Vinicius Junior runs champions ragged to win El Clasico (Telegraph, February 2020)