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Weekly Football Phrase: Smash and Grab

This week languagecaster.com brings you the football phrase ‘smash and grab’. You can understand more about this word or phrase by reading the transcript below. You can also find many more examples of soccer vocabulary by going to our football cliches page here and our huge football glossary here.

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This weeka€™s English for football expression is taken from our 2010 archive – it is the phrase smash and grab. Now this phrase is usually associated with a type of robbery a€“ when the robber smashes a shop window which then allows him or her to take the valuables from inside. It is not very subtle but can be very effective as there exists an element of surprise. Now, in football we use this when one team dominates another but still does not secure the victory, rather the team that has been under pressure all game breaks out from defence and scores a goal to secure an unlikely victory. This happened last weekend at Anfield, when Liverpool had most of the possession, were in control of the game, but were hit on the break by Aston Villa, who were soon 2-0 up. A classic smash and grab.

Example: Ten-man Leeds completed a smash and grab win over Manchester City when they scored the winner in the last minute after spending much of the game under the cosh.

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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

Author
grell

I was born and brought up near Chester in the north west of England. I have always loved playing and talking about sport, especially football!
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