Let’s learn common football expressions and idioms …
Football Expressions and Idioms in English
Common football expressions
- win/ lose a match
Spain lost their first match 0-1.
- draw a match
Uruguay and Argentina drew 0-0.
- play against (sb)
Who were Nigeria playing against last week?
- beat (sb)
Brazil beat Italy in the final.
- lose against (sb)
Bolivia lost 2-1 against Argentina.
- draw with (sb)
Liverpool drew with Juventus.
- shoot
Messi shoots too often. He needs to pass more.
- score a goal
Van Persie scored a wonderful goal against Spain.
- make a save
Casillas made a few good saves.
- concede a goal
Portugal conceded 4 goals against Germany.
- tackle (sb)
I didn’t know if he had the ball or not, so I just tackled him.
- foul (sb)
The English players were trying to foul Pirlo.
- get a yellow card
It was a bad tackle but he only got a yellow card.
- be sent off
Pepe was sent off by the referee.
- be substituted
Torres played so badly that he was substituted.
- back of the net
You should’ve seen it, it was such a great goal. Back of the net!
- Man on!
Quick! Man on! Pass the ball to Jones!
- We were robbed
It is very difficult to swallow, we feel like we’ve been robbed.
- He’s got a sweet left foot.
He’s the best player on the team, and he’s got a sweet left foot.
- He pulled off a great save, what a save!
The goalkeeper pulled off six terrific saves.
- hit the woodwork
He almost had it, but unfortunately it hit the woodwork.
- They got stuck in
- ran the defence ragged
- He’s got a lot of pace
- The goalkeeper made a howler
- It’s a game of two halves
Idioms Related Football
- get the ball rolling
- get a kick out of something
- kick something off, to kick-start something
- keep one’s eye on the ball
- watch from the sidelines
- move the goalposts
- be on the ball
- a political football
- at this (late) stage in the game
- kick sb around
- score an own goal
- take sides
- blow the whistle on sb
- know the score
Football Expressions and Idioms | Image
