In this football language podcast for learners of English we look back at some of the language from the two FA Cup finals that took place in England last weekend: The men’s final between Chelsea and Liverpool and the women’s final between Chelsea and Manchester City. You can also 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: Lift The Trophy – 2022 FA Cup Finals

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’m here in a sunny London and I’m one half of the languagecaster team, the other member of course is Damon who’s based in Tokyo, Japan.

Now, there were two FA Cup finals over the weekend here in England – the men’s game between Liverpool and Chelsea on Saturday in which the Reds won on penalties and then on Sunday the women’s cup final between Chelsea and Manchester City saw Chelsea win after extra time. In this podcast we take a look at some of the language from the BBC reports on the two games including the phrases, ‘to lift the cup‘; ‘run ragged‘ and ‘nestled into the corner‘.

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Lift the Cup

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To lift the trophy (or lift the cup) is another way of saying that a team has won a tournament or a competition. Traditionally at the end of the final, the winning captain is presented or awarded the trophy and they then lift or raise the cup (also known as the trophy or silverware) above their heads in celebration. So, in this final, Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson lifted the tropy after their win on penalties – and this is the eighth time the Reds have won this competition. The next day, Chelsea’s women also lifted the trophy the following day and this was their fourth FA Cup win.

Run Ragged/Pepper the goal

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