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Football Language: To Leapfrog a Team

In this football language post we explain the football expression ‘to leapfrog a team’. Don’t forget we have hundreds more explanations of football language in our football glossary and we also have a page full of football cliches. If you have questions or comments about this or any other phrase then email us at: admin@languagecaster.com.
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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).
  • Example: Real Madrid leapfrog Barcelona at top of La Liga after Vinicius Junior runs champions ragged to win El Clasico (Telegraph, February 2020)

Check out our glossary of footballing phrases here. If you have any suggestions or questions, contact us at admin@languagecaster.com
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

Welcome to the website that helps students interested in football improve their English language skills. Soccer fans can enhance these skills with lots of free language resources: a weekly podcast, football phrases, explanations of football vocabulary, football cliches, worksheets, quizzes and much more at languagecaster.com.

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