In this football language podcast for learners of English who love football, we look back at the final of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations between Egypt and Senegal. 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 [email protected].

Learning English Through Football Podcast: 2021 AFCON Final

Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'GPJSElqZQVl7XDmdLIC_Zw',sig:'oMGSgBuaArBAymmYJeW_xTFk8e5jahJIXS-4XZA_EUc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1238290062',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});

DF: Hello again everyone, this is Damian from the Languagecaster.com team and we hope you are all well and enjoying all the football this week. This of course is the podcast for all fans of football who want to improve their English skills – learning English through football – and on this week’s podcast we look back at the final of the 2021 AFCON. And we have to congratulate Senegal after winning their first ever continental title last weekend after beating Egypt on penalties. We’ve been following the African Cup of Nations over the past four weeks and so on this week’s show we focus on the final by using the Guardian Newspaper’s report. Don’t forget that there is also a transcript with this listening report which you can use to help with teaching or learning English.

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

Right, let’s have a look at some of the words and phrases from the AFCON final.

Score a decisive penalty

This was the headline from the Guardian report on the final and it gives the main information from the game: the Senegal forward Mané scored the winning goal in the penalty shoot-out to give Senegal the AFCON title. The adjective ‘decisive‘ describes an important part of a game, a shot, a goal, a tackle – it means that this action has had an impact on the game; it has helped to decide the game. And Mané’s penalty gave Senegal their first ever AFCON title so it really was a decisive penalty!

Break down a team/Gamemanship

Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'N4zGhbmASbZkPZKzsp0bvQ',sig:'KT9_0twKARnFUMG1RoSiD0PdZ5ZFVBr1l9FJsRZgNSw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1238246195',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});

To break down a team means to try and open them up; to beat a packed defence. There are different ways a team can try to break down an opponent by getting to