Learn English Through Football Podcast: Shock Defeats – 2022-23 Champions League

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On this football language podcast for learners of English we look back at some of the shock defeats from the first set of group matches in this season’s (2022-23) Champions League. You can read the 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.

Learn English Through Football Podcast: Shock Defeats – 2022-23 Champions League

DF: Hello again everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com – the football-language podcast for learners of English who love the beautiful game of football. I’m Damian and I am one half of the Languagecaster team, Damon the other team member is of course based in Japan. I am back in London after my trip to Ireland last week and the weather here is starting to become a little cooler as we move into Autumn. Now, as many of you will know, there are no Premier League matches this weekend due to the passing of the Queen here in the UK. But on today’s show we are going to look back at some of the language from the first set of group stage matches from this season’s Champions League and in particular at the phrase ‘shock defeat‘. Now, recently we have discussed the expression ‘heavy defeat‘ which is used to describe a thrashing – a really bad loss – but a shock defeat is one which is not expected at all, it is a surprise.

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

Dinamo Zagreb 1 v 0 Chelsea: Pull off a shock

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Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb pulled off a big surprise or shock with their 1-0 home win against Chelsea. The home side have not done well in previous Champions League matches winning only five out of 43 so this result was a big shock indeed. The BBC report used the verb ‘to pull off a shock‘ which is another way of saying to shock; they shocked Chelsea with this victory. Indeed, this was such a shock that the Chelsea manager was sacked a couple of days later.

RB Leipzig 1 v 4 Shakhtar Donetsk: Shock defeat

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So, in this Mirror report, the focus is on the losing side RB Leipzig who were beaten 1-4 at home by Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk. Not many people thought this result would happen especially as the Ukrainian side have lost many players and have only just re-started playing football in their domestic league; so this result was seen as a huge surprise or a huge shock. The German side, like Chelsea, also fired their manager because of this shock defeat.

Napoli 4-1 Liverpool: Suffer a shock defeat

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So, although Napoli are currently top of Serie A, this victory over Liverpool was still seen as a shock result as their opponents have played in three Champions League finals in the past five seasons. In this report from Reuters, they have used the verb ‘to suffer’ (suffered a shock a defeat) so the focus is on Liverpool rather than Napoli – the Reds suffered a shock defeat – which would suggest that few would have predicted this kind of result or performance. So far, however, the Liverpool manager has not been sacked after this shock defeat unlike in the previous two examples.

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. Now, we’ve recently had quite a few questions including the phrase ‘to charge in on the right‘ which you can check out the discussion there on the forum. You can also send us an email at admin@languagecaster.com and you can also look out for us on Facebook, Twitter and 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 this message, ‘you are listening to Languagecaster.com‘ – it would be great to hear lots of different voices. Don’t forget that there’s a transcript to this podcast and there’s lots of vocabulary support which you can access by coming along to our site. We really think it’s a great resource for those learning and teaching the language.

OK, that’s it for this short football-language podcast in which we looked back at the phrases ‘shock defeat‘ and ‘to suffer a shock defeat‘ after some of the first round of group matches in this year’s [2022-23] Champions League. What do you think of these shock defeats? Can you think of any other examples of shock defeats? Let us know in the comments below or as I said, on our forum page. And we’ll be back soon with more football language and until then enjoy all the football. Bye bye.

Related Vocabulary

• UEFA
• 2022 Champions League: Real Madrid vs PSG
• 2021 Champions League Final
• 2020 Champions League Review
• 2019 Champions League Final

Football Language Glossary