In this football language post we look back at some of the language that was used to describe some of the drama in the European qualification matches for the 2022 World Cup. We will focus on some of the newspaper headlines from these matches and look at phrases such as ‘leapfrog‘; ‘to confirm‘; ‘to secure‘ and ‘demolition‘. There is a transcript with this listening activity along with some vocabulary practice and you can also check out our football glossary and football cliches pages for hundreds more explanations of the language of soccer. If you have questions or comments about this or any other phrase then email us at: admin@languagecaster.com. Learning English Through Football Podcast: World Cup 2022 – European Qualifiers DF: Hello everyone, this is Damian from the Learning English Through Football team. I hope we are all doing well and enjoying the football. Did you watch any of the recent World Cup qualifiers? How did your side do? Well, my country Ireland were already eliminated from the tournament – they could not qualify for the finals next year – but it was still nice to see them pick up four points and two clean sheets in matches against Luxembourg and Portugal – more on them later! Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (Irish fan). OK, so the latest set of World Cup qualifying games is over and what an action-packed set of fixtures it has proved to be, particularly in the European section where the final group matches have now all been completed. The ten group winners have been decided but to find out the remaining three sides who will play in the 2022 finals, we will have to wait until next March when a series of play-offs take place. Now, the play-off route will be a tricky one – teams will have to win a semi-final and a final in one-off games which meant that finishing second in their qualifying groups would not be ideal. So in this football language podcast we take a look at how newspaper headlines have described some of these final group matches that decided which teams would qualify for Qatar 2022, which ones would go into the play-offs and which ones would be eliminated. Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (French fan). Now, don’t forget there is of course a transcript to go with this podcast – it’s great for teaching and learning English – and if you have any questions or comments about any of the football language in this report then you can contact us  at: admin@languagecaster.com or ask a question on our football language forum.