Learn English Through Football Podcast: Champions League and Europa League Game 1 Review

Welcome to the podcast for English language learners who love football. In this week's podcast - our sixth of the season - we look back at some of the big stories from the football week in our good, the bad and the ugly section, while we'll also be looking at some of the football language from the past week and of course we'll be looking ahead to the big games this weekend in our predictions battle - including Chelsea versus Liverpool and Hull City against Arsenal. You can read the transcript for the show in our post below (Damian = DF, Damon = DB). Learn English Through Football Podcast: Champions League and Europa League Game 1 Review Subscribe to the show and receive automatic downloads every week Subscribe through i-tunes here Click for the latest shows here Podcast FAQ Transcript of the show DF: You're listening to languagecaster's football podcast. Hello everyone, my name is Damian and I'm back here in a very wet and windy London after a short holiday in Ireland and hopefully Damon is there in Tokyo. Hello Damon, how are things there in Japan? DB: Well, over here in Japan they are also very wet but not so windy - just a little bit cloudy. Now, you've just come back from Ireland and I'm wondering... was there any football action over there? DF: Yes there was Damon, lots and lots of football there was an Irish team playing in the Europa League which we'll be talking about later on in the show... DB: Yep... DF: ... and Irish TV shows lots of European and English football so... if you follow us on instagram you'll see that I've been watching lots of football from ... pubs in... over the last few days... DB: Brilliant! DF: How about you Damon, have you been watching any football? DB: Just a little bit ... just a few Champions League games and so on but I'm looking forward to this weekend's football which, again, we'll talk about later on in the show. DF: Yes indeed. So, Damon, what do we have on today's podcast? Line up and Quiz DB: Well, we will be looking back at some of the big football stories in our good, the bad and ugly section soon. And after that we'll take a look at some of the language that emerged from the football world this week and then we'll finish be looking ahead to the big games taking place this weekend in the Premier League in our predictions competition. DF: Great stuff but before that Damon, we have a football question for our listeners. The first games in the Champions and Europa Leagues took place this week and we want to know how many goals the English sides scored in total - that's from both the Champions and Europa Leagues. And we'll have the answer at the end of the show. DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster.com and next up it's the good, the bad and the ugly section. And Damian what was good? Good DF: Well, it was a good week for Irish side Dundalk as they managed to earn an away point in Holland in their first ever appearance in the Europa League. Remarkably, the League of Ireland side scored an equaliser in the last minute of the match against AZ Alkmaar and this after their captain had been sent off for two yellow card offences. Now, their group also includes Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC - they're from Israel - and Zenit St Petersburg from Russia so they should really have no chance at all of qualification but as we all know in football anything can happen. How about bad Damon? Bad DB: Well, talking about the Champions League it was a bad night for Scottish football when their representatives in the Champions League, Celtic, were humiliated 7-0 by Barcelona in the first of their group C games. Now Messi scored in the 3rd minute and went on to complete his hat-trick, Suarez bagged a brace and Iniesta and Neymar completed the scoring against a Celtic side that were completely outplayed. With Manchester City also in their group the best the Scottish side can hope for is (a) third-place finish to qualify for the Europa League but after this defeat even that looks beyond them. What about ugly Damian? Ugly DF: Well, it was not a good night at all for Polish side Legia Warsaw as they were thrashed 0-6 at home by Dortmund - also in the Champions League - and they will also face a UEFA charge after the behaviour of their fans on the night, which included using pepper spray against stewards and singing racist chants - though the club do deny this last charge. Pretty ugly scenes indeed. DB: Next up we are going to take a look at some of the football language from the week. Football Language - Clinical DF: Yes, now we are going to talk about the adjective 'clinical' which is often used to describe a team's performance in football. The basic meaning here is related to how efficient a team is with respect to their performance and particularly in front of goal - so we often use this adjective with the word 'finishing' - 'clinical finishing'. Now, in this week's Champions League group match between Spurs and Monaco Spurs missed some good chances in their 1-2 home defeat - they were not so clinical in their finishing. Monaco, on the other hand, had two shots on target and scored with both of them - they were clinical in their finishing. Paralympics DB: Thanks for that Damian. Now last week we talked a little about the paralympicfootball tournaments going on in Rio - a 5-a-side competition for visually impaired players and a 7-a-side tournament for those with cerebral palsy and in the 5-a-side version holders Brazil will take on Iran in the final on Saturday, while Argentina play China for the bronze medal. What about the 7-a-side competition, Damian? DF: Yes, in the seven-a-side tournament the Ukraine will take on Iran in the gold medal match later on today, while Brazil will face the Netherlands in a play-off for third. Follow us DB: Now remember, if you come along to Languagecaster.com you can find a massive collection of more football terms, phrases, vocabulary and football cliches in our language glossary. And if you have more words and phrases you think we should add or want explaining then contact us at [email protected]. DF: Yes, don't forget, you can also follow us on Facebook a€“ Learn English Through Football a€“ we had lots of new follows and likes this week again including Subash - so thanks for that, while on twitter where our handle is @languagecaster, we'd like to say thank you to all those who have contacted or re-tweeted us over the past few days including Brett and Tim. Now as you know our social media presence is increasing as we also have a new instagram account where you can see lots of football photos from the languagecaster team and thanks again - this time to manleykmark, gareth and all the others who commented and liked our latest football-related photos. DB: Alright Damian, now it's time for this week's predictions. Bring it on! Predictions DF: Yes, that's right Damon. Next up we have our predictions battle in which both of us will try and predict some of the big games taking place this weekend. Remember you can take us on in our online predictions competition. Simply come along to our site at languagecaster.com, log in (for free) to our predictions competition a€“ you can see that at the top of the menu bar on our website and then of course make your choices. Ita€™s 3 points for a correct score and one for the right result. Now the current overall leader in the competition, and this really pains me to say this is Damon... DB: Get in! DF: ...you're on 33 points...33 points and then followed by Aung Kyaw from Myanmar and myself on 31 (so, we're just behind you) and then we have Jose and the Mighty Toft. Now, if you haven't entered your scores yet you can still do so for the overall competition and for the monthly September competition. DB: So, this week we are going to talk about three matches: Chelsea hosting Liverpool, Hull City taking on Arsenal and Spurs who are playing Sunderland. First up we have the Chelsea-Liverpool game, Damian what do you think? DF: Yes, this will be a very interesting game indeed - made more so by the fact that it is being played tonight - that's on Friday night. I think I am going to go for a draw though Damon - 1-1. How about you Damon? DB: Yes, Friday night football, under the lights, it should be a special atmosphere, shouldn't it? Reds against blues... I think it's going to be 1-1 but I hope it's going to be 3-0 to Liverpool! Now, in our second game we feature Hull City and Arsenal. Damian, what do you reckon? DF: Well, this is simple because as a Spurs fan I am going to have to go for a Hull win. 1-0! And you? DB: Well, I'm going to go for another 1-1 result here. Although Arsenal have a great record against Hull, I've got a feeling this Hull side is a little different to the Hull sides that they've seen before. I think a 1-1 well-earned point for Hull. DF: Nice one. Well, our final game of the week sees Tottenham taking on Sunderland, what do you think? DB: I'm going to repeat myself. 1-1. I think... again, Tottenham have a great record against Sunderland but I just have a feeling that Tottenham might have lost their way a little bit with the mid-week European game - could be 1-1. DF: You could be right. Spurs played well last Saturday away at Stoke but did not reach the same heights in their Champions League defeat versus Monaco so I am hoping they bounce back against Sunderland - 2-0 for me. DB: OK, now what do you think listener, what do you think will happen in this weeka€™s games? Come along to our site at languagecaster.com and let us know. Don't forget to join our predictions competition, or indeed our Premier League Fantasy Football - you can find out information on how to join us by clicking on the link in this post. How are you doing this week Damian? DF: Not too bad - I have moved up to 9th place on 160 points and you?