In this post, we explain the football expression ‘First-round exit’, which will probably be heard over the next few days in the 2018 World Cup as teams fail to qualify for the second round.
- Find out more about this 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.
World Cup Language: First-round exit
Todaya€™s football language expression is a€˜first-round exita€™ which may be heard over the next few days as teams fail to qualify for the second round, that is, they fail to reach the last 16 knock-out round. In Group A Egypt have already lost their first two matches, as have Saudi Arabia which means that both teams are out of the 2018 World Cup before the end of the group matches. Their final game against each other becomes a dead rubber, which is a match with nothing to play for, and so both teams have made a first-round exit. Other teams over the next few days will be under pressure to stay in the tournament by avoiding defeat in the second of their three group matches, including Germany, Morocco, Tunisia, Colombia, Peru and Nigeria who are all facing first-round exits unless they turn things around and at least pick up a point in their next match. In the case of a big side such as Germany you might hear the phrase a€˜dumped out of the tournamenta€™ as this would be a surprise – Germany would be dumped out of the World Cup, whereas if Tunisia or Panama go out in the first round the phrase a€˜dumped out ofa€™ would not really be used.
In 2014 in Brazil England lost their first two group matches to Italy and Uruguay and had a first-round exit but this time round it looks like they should, at least, make it to the last 16 after defeating Tunisia on Monday. Although in football you just never know