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Football Language: Win ugly

Win ugly

This week’s football phrase is ‘winning ugly‘ after two of the 2016 Euros last-16 matches were won in this manner. 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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Teams cannot always play in an attacking, stylish or beautiful way – often they have to defend a lot and maybe win the game on a counter attack or even with a bit of luck and so sometimes we use the phrase ‘to win ugly’ when describing this kind of victory. In Euro 2016, Wales beat Northern Ireland thanks to an own goal after a dull encounter, while on the same day Portugal snatched a winner against Croatia in the last minute after almost 120 minutes of boring football with few chances. Both victories can be described as ‘winning ugly’.

  • Example: Portugal have managed to reach the final after winning ugly.
  • Example: Sometimes it’s not necessary to play well as teams can also play badly and win – winning ugly.
  • Example: “Wales relieved to win ‘ugly’ game vs Northern Ireland to reach Euro 2016 quarter-finals (Standard 25 June 2016)

Football Language Glossary

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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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Further reading

Newspaper Headline: Christmas No 1

Newspaper Headlines: Christmas No 1

In this football language post we explain the newspaper headline, 'Christmas No 1' from the Independent newspaper about Liverpool being top