Learn English Through Football Podcast: Rode their luck (AFCON 2025) 

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 Learn English Through Football Podcast: Rode their luck (AFCON 2025)

In this week’s football-language podcast we look at some language from the last-16 of the AFCON 2025 tournament in Morocco, including the phrase, ‘rode their luck‘. We will also predict the last-16 tie between Algeria and Congo DR and we look at some language around managers getting the sack! You can read the 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 about the phrase or our podcast then you can contact us here.

Hello

DF: You’re listening to the Learn English through Football Podcast.

Hello everyone. Happy New Year to you all and we hope that 2026 has been good for you so far.

Welcome to this week’s football language podcast for learners of English who love the beautiful game of football. My name is Damian and I am in a freezing but bright London – there have been some postponements of games due to the weather here in the UK. What is the weather like where you are? It’s just me today but we’ll be hearing from Damon, who is based in Tokyo of course, later on next week.

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

DF: That message was in Swahili and yes, you are listening to Languagecaster.com or as we are now known: The Learn English Through Football Podcast.

Right, what do we have on today’s show? Well, we are going to continue our look at language that has come from the AFCON 2025 tournament in Morocco. We will explain the phrase ‘to ride their luck‘ after Mali’s dramatic victory over Tunisia in the last-16 knock out round. We will also look at the phrase, ‘victory over an opponent‘; so, what does ‘over‘ mean here? And we will try and predict another last-16 tie; that’s Algeria against Congo DR. And we’ll also take a look at some language around the sacking of football managers!

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

That message was in Bemba from a Zambian fan. Unfortunately for them, Zambia were knocked out in the group stages after finishing bottom of Group A behind leaders and favourites for the tournament, Morocco. The hosts have made it to the quarter finals along with another one of the favourites, Senegal and also Cameroon who defeated many people’s dark horses South Africa. Mali also made it to the last eight after winning a dramatic penalty shoot out against Tunisia. And it’s this game that we focus on today. First up we explain, ‘to ride their luck‘ and then we will look at the phrase, ‘victory over an opponent‘.

Football Language: Rode their luck

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Mali have made it to the last eight of this year’s AFCON but only just! They defeated Tunisia on penalties at the weekend despite only having ten players for over an hour after a red card decision. They then went behind to Tunisia in the 88th minute but remarkably scored a 96-minute penalty to send the game into extra time. There were no more goals and so the game went to penalties – the Malian side missed two spot kicks but still managed to make it through. This is how the BBC described it:

Example: Ten-man Mali rode their luck to beat Tunisia 3-2 on penalties and reach the quarter-finals of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (BBC.co.uk Jan 4 2026)

So, the Malian side had to repeatedly rely on luck to help them qualify. They had a player sent off early in the game. They conceded a late goal. They missed twice in the shoot-out but despite all of this they still qualified. They rode their luck. And this phrase suggests that a team repeatedly got lucky and ended up with a favourable result; a positive result. I think the phrase suggests that the team was not just lucky but repeatedly lucky; so on more than one occasion they had luck to get them through. Of course, we could say that Mali showed amazing resilience to qualify despite all of the negative things that happened to them as well!

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

Football Language: Victory over an opponent

Our next phrase is ‘victory over an opponent‘. So, for example we might hear that Morocco’s victory over Tanzania was a comfortable one. The word ‘over’ here just means against or even versus but when we use victory we can use the preposition over afterwards. We might also hear the phrase, ‘claim a victory over (a team)‘, which means that the first team won against the other team, while we might hear the word ‘triumph‘ instead of victory. So, for example, Senegal’s triumph over Sudan means they will play Mali in the last eight.

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

AFCON (Last-16): Algeria vs Congo DR

DF: OK, let’s move on to the predictions this week and I am going to continue with the AFCON theme and look at the last-16 game between Algeria and DR Congo. Both of these sides, who have won the tournament on two occasions, featured in our AFCON preview in which we felt they would do well in the tournament. Algeria won all three of their group games, while DR Congo picked up seven points – they drew with favourites Senegal in their group matches. I think this will be tight but I fancy DR Congo to get through against Algeria. 2-1 for me.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (a football fan from Sudan) 

DF: And how about practising your predictions language with us? What do you think will happen in any games that you are watching this week? What do you reckon will happen? Will your team have too much for their opponents, for example? Let us know by coming along to our site or on any of our social media sites – you can find us on Facebook; on X; on YouTube on Instagram and many more.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (a fan in Brazil)

Contact

DB: And of course, don’t forget, we have a huge glossary of football terms, with hundreds of expressions, phrases, and clichés about the beautiful game of football. And remember also to tell a friend about us and give us ‘a like’ on your favourite podcast platform!

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (a Chelsea fan from Cameroon) 

Parted Ways and Sacked

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DF: Yes, you are listening to the Learn English Through Football podcast and that message was from a Chelsea fan in Cameroon – he must be happy with the Indomitable Lions but not so happy with the fact that Chelsea lost their manager Enzo Maresca at the weekend. He ‘parted ways‘ with the club after only 18 months but of course he helped the club to the Europa Conference League and FIFA Club World Cup titles.

Then today we heard that Manchester United have sacked their manager Ruben Amorim after only 14 months in charge. Interestingly, both managers lost their jobs after press conferences that seemed to suggest issues within their clubs. But Maresca ‘parted ways’, whereas Amorim was ‘sacked’. I think the difference is…parted ways suggests that there is an agreement on both sides – so that’s Maresca and Chelsea, whereas sacked is just from the club; Amorim didn’t really have any say.

Now, we have a couple of podcasts on the language of managers and managers getting the sack so come along and check them out (Seven stages of being a manager).

Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast. 

And well done if you got any of the stingers in different languages throughout the show – we heard Swahili, Bemba, French, Japanese as well as fans from Sudan, Brazil and Cameroon. Remember, you can add a message by sending us a recording for the Learn English Through Football podcast – we’d love to hear from you.

Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast (Liverpool fan)

Goodbye

DF: Right, let us know if you hear or see any of the phrases or words that we have talked about on this week’s show, including ‘rode their luck‘ or ‘victory over an opponent‘. How might you say them in another language that you know? Drop us a line at contact@learnenglishthroughfootball.com. And again, we’d love to hear from you.

DF: Enjoy all the football this week – we’ll be back soon with another weekly football expression. Bye bye!

Related Links

Learn English Through Football Podcast

Damon Brewster and Damian Fitzpatrick

Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills

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