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Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2026 FA Cup Third Round
In this week’s football-language podcast we focus on the language of the 3rd round of the FA Cup, like the cliche ‘the magic of the cup’. We also look ahead to the AFCON final between hosts Morocco and Senegal. 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
DB: You’re listening to the Learn English through Football Podcast. How are you listener and have you been enjoying the football where you are this week? I was lucky enough to meet up with podcast partner Damian in London last weekend to see an FA Cup third round match between West Ham and Queen’s Park Rangers.
The third round of the FA Cup, when the teams from the top two divisions join the competition, is a highlight of the football calendar in England and Wales, and we’ll be talking about some language from this round in today’s show.
West Ham v QPR
But before we do that, Damian, how are you and what did you think of the match we went to last weekend?
DF: Hello Damon and hello to the listeners; I hope you are all doing well.
Well, it was great to see you last week Damon though I have to admit that the game we went to between West Ham and QPR from the Championship was a terrible one. It went to extra time before finally West Ham won to go through to the fourth round of the Cup, which is more than can be said for my favourite team, Tottenham, who lost at home to Aston Villa in their third round FA Cup game.
Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English through football podcast.com (a Liverpool fan)
DF: Yes, that message was from a fan of Liverpool and yes, you are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast. Right Damon, what football language is on today’s show?
On the Show
DB: Well Damian, as it was the third round of the FA Cup last weekend, we’ll have a round-up of the action and will be including as much great FA Cup football language as we can: cliches and phrases you’ll hear every year with this competition. But before that, here is another stinger, message. We’ve already had one from a Liverpool fan, but do you know what language the next one is in? We will have several of these throughout the show – how many languages can you get correct? We’ll have the answers at the end of the show.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Swahili – Tanzania)
FA Cup Third Round Review: Cup Magic, Giant‑Killings & Drama
DB: OK, let’s talk about the 3rd round of the FA Cup, which had everything: shocks, thrashings, penalty drama, and David‑versus‑Goliath match ups. Here’s a brief summary of the action, with lots of football phrases and cliches that are often used to talk about this famous competition.
The Romance of the Cup
Let’s start out with perhaps the biggest FA Cup cliche, the romance of the cup, a phrase used to show how special many fans think the FA Cup is, full of great moments and tradition.
The stand out tie of the round must be Macclesfield dumping out Crystal Palace. Non‑league Macclesfield stunned holders Crystal Palace 2–1, in arguably one of the biggest shocks in FA Cup history according to many reports. This was one of the biggest giant-killings in the competition’s history. Wrexham also pulled off a giant-killing by knocking out Nottingham Forest on penalties after the match ended 3-3. We can call both of these results ‘cupsets‘, which combines ‘cup’ with ‘upset’, to mean a surprise result in a cup competition.
Goals Galore
If Exeter City had dreams of a ‘cupset’ against Manchester City, their dreams were shattered. The Blues fired ten past the south coast side, with the game ending 10-1. This was a classic David vs Goliath fixture, with Manchester City Premier League champions four times in the last five years, and Exeter a mid-table League 1 side. The 10-1 scoreline can be called a cricket score. In cricket, scoring goes into the hundreds, so saying it was a cricket score in football emphasises how big the victory was.
There were otehr big victories: Burnley – 5-1 against Millwall, Wolves – 6-1 against Shrewsbury, Chelsea – 5-1 away at Charlton, and Burton Albion – 5-0 away at non-league Boreham Wood. They all ran out comfortable winners in their matches.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Greek)
Penalty Shootout Drama
Everyone loves a penalty shoot-out, well if your team isn’t in it, and there was plenty of spot-kick drama in the 3rd round. As we know, penalties are a lottery – anything can happen in a penalty shoot-out. We’ve already mentioned Wrexham knocking out Nottingham Forest on pens, and Newcastle and Bournemouth also played out a 3-3 draw with Newcastle with a 6-5 shoot-out victory. Elsewhere –
- Swansea City 2-2 West Brom (West Brom 6-5)
- Hull City 0-0 Blackburn Rovers (Hull 4-3)
- Everton 1-1 Sunderland (Sunderland 0-3)
- MK Dons 1-1 Oxford (Oxford 4-3)
Big Teams Survive – But Not All
Most of the big Premier league sides booked their places in the next round including Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Brentford and Brighton. Brighton knocked Manchester United out of the cup 2-1 away, meaning the 13 times FA Cup winners didn’t go into the hat for the 4th-round draw
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Bemba, Zambia)
Predictions: 2025 AFCON Final
DB: Right, before we go, let’s move to another tournament, the 2025 AFCON final between hosts Morocco and Senegal. Who is going to win this prestigious competition. Here’s Damian with his predictions.
DF: Yes, it’s the AFCON final this weekend between the two best sides in the competition: hosts Morocco and Senegal who won this competition a couple of years ago. This will be difficult to call but I think Morocco will do it – maybe after extra time – and they’ll win only their second ever African title. 2-1 to Morocco after extra time 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 YouTube; Instagram and many more.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (Hungarian)
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)
And well done if you got any of the stingers in different languages throughout the show.
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.
Goodbye
DB: 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. 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. And make sure you check out the post on our website, LearnEnglishThroughFootball.com, which has a fantastic list of FA Cup language and cliches at the end of the post. Ta-ra!
DF: Enjoy all the football this week – we’ll be back soon with another weekly football expression. Bye bye!
Related Links
- 2021 FA Cup Final: We discuss some of the language that described Leicester’s first ever FA Cup final victory.
- 5 Great FA Cup Finals: [from 2013] We look at the biggest upsets, The Merseyside final and Ricky Villa’s goal.
- 2017 FA Cup Final: in which we looked ahead to the Arsenal vs Chelsea final and explained the word ‘silveware‘. And here is the 2017 FA Cup Third Round Podcast.
- 1976 FA Cup Final: Damon remembers one of his first ever FA Cup finals on TV
- The FA Cup in Numbers (1): This report from 2011 looks at some of the numbers associated with the FA Cup – there is a worksheet with this report.
- The FA Cup Numbers (2): We look at some more numbers connected to the FA Cup (from 2014)
- The Language of the FA Cup: Back in 2013 we discussed some of the most typical FA Cup phrases, including David and Goliath!
- FA Cup Review: In 2014 we looked back at some of our previous reports on the FA Cup – a nice collection of resources here!
- Changes to the FA Cup: In this 2011 report we made some suggestions on changes to the FA Cup
- The FA Cup: This 2011 report looked at some of the language of the FA Cup (the format and the tradition) – there is also a worksheet.
- FA Cup 3rd Round (2007): A look at some of the traditions of the FA Cup from 2007 – there is a worksheet with this podcast.
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
https://languagecaster.com/football-language-glossary/
