Weekly Football Phrase: Defend their title

by Learn English through Football18 March 2026Add comment

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Weekly Football Phrase: Defend their title

In this football phrase of the week we look at the expression, ‘defend their title‘ after Chelsea defeated Manchester United in the Women’s League Cup final this weekend. You can read the transcript for this post 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. You can also find out more about this phrase in our football language forum. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us here.

DF: Hello everyone. This is Damian from the Learn English Through Football team and I hope you are all doing well. I am here in London where spring is in the air – finally! How did your team get on at the weekend? Did they win, lose or draw? My team Tottenham drew at Liverpool which meant that they stopped a bad run of five straight defeats; so I suppose that was not too bad.

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (from a Greek listener)

DF: Yes, you are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast, or as we were known before, Languagecaster, and that message was in Greek.

Defend their title

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DF: Right, this week’s football expression is ‘to defend their title. In our last podcast we talked a little about the Women’s League Cup final here in the UK between holders Chelsea and Manchester United in our predictions section. I didn’t think Chelsea would win and so would not repeat the victory from the previous season; as I thought United would be too good for them. But I was wrong as Chelsea won 2-0 and so successfully defended their title.

To defend a title has the same meaning as retain a title which is when a team wins a title again the next time (or season) that the competition or tournament is held. Liverpool won the Premier League title last year [2024-25] so we can say that they are the defending champions (or maybe the current champions). And this season they are trying to defend their title though this is not going so well; they have not been as successful in defending their title. or defending their Premier League title.

Here are some more examples:

Brazil won the World Cup in 1958 and again in 1962 so we can say they retained their title or they successfully defended their title.
Chelsea defended the first of their three domestic titles with victory over Manchester United in the Women’s League Cup (BBC.co.uk)

And this example shows that Chelsea’s women’s team have retained the League Cup after winning it last year and again this season. They are the defending League and Cup champions too but it will be difficult to retain their league title as Manchester City are running away with the league. However they are still in the FA Cup, so they hope to defend their title this season again.

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

Goodbye

DF: OK, so on this week’s football expression we have looked at the phrase, ‘defend their title‘ Can you think of any other words or phrases that are linked to this phrase? How about in another language that you know? Has your team ever defended a title? And which teams will defend their title this season?

Now, we have opened a new post on our forum where you can find out more about this phrase and you can also practise using this phrase there.

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster.com (Learn English Through Football Podcast) (from an Arsenal fan)

That’s it for this week’s football expression – defend their title. We’ll be back with our weekly podcast with more football language at the weekend. Enjoy the football this week – it’s the second legs of the Champions League last-16 ties. I wonder if PSG will go through against Chelsea on their way to defending their title?

We’ll see you soon. Bye bye!

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Weekly Football Phrase: Defend their title

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