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Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2022 World Cup Qualifiers – Italy 0-1 North Macedonia

In this week’s football language podcast for learners of English, we look back at some of the language from the incredible World Cup play-off match between Italy and North Macedonia in which the European champions were knocked out of the World Cup by a side that has never played in a World Cup before. In particular, we will look at the phrases ‘injury-time winner‘; ‘rue their misses‘ and ‘deny‘. You can read a transcript for this podcast 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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Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2022 World Cup Qualifiers – Italy 0-1 North Macedonia

DF: Hello again everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com – the football-language podcast for learners of English who love the beautiful game of football. This is Damian and I’m one half of the languagecaster team, the other member of course is Damon who is in Tokyo and no doubt celebrating Japan’s qualification for the 2022 World Cup finals. Now, I’m here in London the day after one of the biggest World Cup shocks of all time – Italy were sensationally eliminated; dumped out of the World Cup after losing at home to North Macedonia in the play-offs. And so on this short podcast we’ll look at some of the language to describe this dramatic shock including, ‘injury-time winner‘; ‘rue their misses‘ and ‘deny‘.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Spanish)

Injury-time goal/winner

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So, when the draw was made for the European play-offs to determine the three remaining sides to qualify for the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar, there were many complaints that one of Portugal or Italy – the two most recent European champions – would not qualify as they were due to meet in the play-off final. No one gave Turkey or especially Italy’s opponent North Macedonia any chance at all of making the finals but as we all know ‘football is a funny old game‘ and nothing is ever certain. Italy, playing at home remember, lost to a late strike (that’s a shot on goal) from the North Macedonian forward Aleksandar Trajkovski which means the Azzurri will not play in the World Cup finals for the second time in a row. Unbelievable. The winning goal came in the 92nd minute which is known as injury time as this is the time the referee adds to the regulation 90 minutes for stoppages in play such as substitutions and injuries. Now, a last-gasp goal or injury-time goal or winner makes the team that scores it feel amazing but of course the opposite is also true as Italy, despite dominating the game, were unable to recover the situation.

Rue their misses

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If we rue something it means that we regret something and in the case of last night’s play-off, the Italian side definitely rued all of their missed chances to score. They had 32 shots on goal with five of these on target but by not scoring any of them or taking any of these chances, they were knocked out of the World Cup. The home side threw the kitchen sink at their opponents but were unable to break them down and then, as is often the case in games like this, they were caught by a sucker punch and lost in the dying moments – a real smash and grab performance by the North Macedonians.

Deny

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If a team denies their opponent it means, depending on the context, that they stop them from scoring, winning or maybe, as in this case, qualifying for the next round of a tournament. In this match we can say that the North Macedonian team denied Italy a place in the finals or that their defence denied the Italians which means they stopped the Azzurri from scoring; or we might also hear that the goalkeeper denied the Italian forwards a goal – he stopped them from scoring. Now, we have already mentioned the goalscorer Aleksandar Trajkovski and so we can say that his goal denied the Italians – his winner prevented the Italians from going to the next round.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com. (in French)

Contact

Now, if you want to ask any football-language questions or simply say hello then you can do so by adding a comment on our site here, or by using our forum, by sending an email to us at admin@languagecaster.com or by looking for us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Italian).

Goodbye

DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster and that message was in Italian and we’d love to hear from anyone else who might like to share the message, ‘you are listening to Languagecaster.com‘ in any other language – maybe we can hear from some North Macedonian fans! And don’t forget that there’s a transcript to this podcast and lots of vocabulary support which you can access by coming along to our site here at languagecaster.

OK, that’s it for this short podcast in which we have looked back at some of the language to describe the shock Italian defeat by North Macedonia in the World Cup play-offs: ‘injury-time winner‘; ‘rue their misses‘ and ‘deny‘. Thanks again everyone for listening and enjoy all the football this week – there’s much more World Cup football, including the African World Cup play-offs – we have a preview podcast on our site – and we’ll see you again soon with more football language. Bye bye.

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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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