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In the context of war, how significant is it for Ukraine to participate in Euro 2024?
Why does Oleksandr Zinchenko frustrate Ukrainian fans?
Was Mikhail Mudryk's deal to Chelsea overpriced?
And what does the idiom to throw the spanner in the works mean?
Hi listeners, welcome back to the Footglitch Podcast.
A football podcast that can help you level up your English.
We're discussing Euro 2024 here and for me personally, and I believe for most of Europe,
one of the biggest stories is of course Ukraine.
I am glad to welcome to the podcast a Ukrainian fan, a Ukrainian himself.
Marianne, welcome to the Footglitch Podcast.
Hi everyone.
I'm glad to be here and thank you for your invitation.
It's a good opportunity for me to talk to everyone about our team and a little bit about Ukraine.
It's a real pleasure. Of course we know your story and I want to ask you the first question.
How important is this for your country? How important is it to be at the Euros?
Now it's the most important year for us because we can tell about the situation in Ukraine
and about the war and our players do it everywhere and in each their interview.
And it creates opportunity for us to remind everyone about other problems.
So it's not just only about football, it's about more than football.
Absolutely and I can totally agree and that's the right way to do it.
And you know your country has incredible spirit and you don't give up.
And I think this is another way to show it to those people who have been maybe ignorant
or live in their bubble because there are so many people in the world who live in a bubble.
They are surrounded by the same friends, they follow the same social media
and listen to the same politicians and then this can lead to a disaster in this day and age.
So it's important what you are doing and it's important for your team to be at the Euros.
That's at least my opinion.
Yeah and it's important for all people who live in Ukraine and who can't live in Ukraine now
because it's great emotions and great things about which you can be happy.
And it's a moral boost.
I can imagine it's a moral boost even the soldiers who are at the front line.
I don't know if they have a chance to see the games but at least they hear about it.
They hear about the results. Now we are going to talk about your second game
which you managed to win. You beat Slovakia 2-1. We are recording on
Saturday so a day before that you managed to beat Slovakia.
And I think it's important that you got those three points don't you think?
Because after your first unconvincing performance against Romania where you lost
3-0 you needed this. Would you agree?
Yeah and this thing which you mentioned before that our soldiers watch our football matches
and this is true because not all of them but some of them have this opportunity to watch
and it's also great emotions for them because if you are a fan of football and if you're a fan of
our team and Ukraine of course you will be happy and you will have some cool emotions and some
boost as you said because when you are on the battle line it's really horrible. It's like the
second world war. Horrible things happen there. So maybe people don't understand this and they
think that it's some small war and far from people in Europe but this is pretty the same as we had
almost 100 years ago and it's horrible and it's hard for people who are there. So yeah it's great
boost for them. It's not motivation, it's great. It's just great emotions which they can get from
this match and of course it's great that our team managed to win because after the first match
we were disappointed, angry, upset and we said lots of words to our players and not only average
people, all people who have YouTube channels, football channels I mean. Yeah there was a lot of
critique from everywhere. And also we have to say that your team did it in an incredible fashion.
So you were one nil down after half time against Slovakia right? It's about style.
And it's your style I see. So basically you were staring at the abyss right? You were on the verge
of being eliminated from the tournament and you kind of did it in the last minute because you
needed some points from this game. Ideally three points because even one point might not have been
enough since you lost three nil so your goal difference is still not very good so you needed
three points. Yeah unfortunately we still need three points and I know it's possible but
it will be hard to get three points against Belgium but we will try and Slovakia managed to do it and
our group is the most interesting group because before the last game all four teams can have three
points. Yeah that's true, that's true. And it will be interesting because Belgium will win today
Belgium will win today. I think especially Slovakia threw the spanner in the works by beating
Belgium one nil in their opening game so now you beat Slovakia which means you should be able to
beat Belgium, you should be able to beat Belgium right? Yeah but if think about this in this way
Slovakia won Belgium and Belgium is better than Ukraine so why Slovakia lost Ukraine it's a question.
It makes no sense you can look at it in any way you want but the game you played against Slovakia
it was kind of a half kind of a game of two halves. I think Slovakia started off really well they
seemed full of confidence after their amazing win over Belgium and Ukraine didn't exactly look
at their best but then something changed and since you know from the moment you scored your
equalizer and remind me who scored the goal was it Sharapenko? Sharapenko right?
It was a great player but he got injured maybe a year ago or two years ago and he didn't play
for a year or two and only now he back in football and start playing again great.
Well an amazing moment for him an amazing moment to such an important goal right and I have to
mention Oleksandr Zinchenko because he plays for my favorite team Arsenal and he bagged a really
important assist as well he was a great great assist from him wasn't it? Yeah I recalled about
Zinchenko yesterday too and I was talking with my brother about this and Zinchenko is a great player
but it's not great enough to be to play on defense yeah. Yeah that's true that's true because
actually the goal Slovakia scored was Zinchenko's mistake wasn't it so he kind of redeemed himself
there with that with that assist I think he redeemed himself and it's the same at Arsenal he's
capable of moments of brilliance when it comes to the build-up especially the build-up he can hold
the ball really well he's a good dribbler and he has good eyes he can see a lot of things on the
pitch but when it comes to defending he doesn't exactly cover himself in much glory he is really
a bang average defender I would say and that's a problem if you are a defender your job is to
defend right so another big problem because to play in attack he can he isn't enough great tool
because in Arsenal there are better players and in even in Ukraine team we have different players
and we need to use different players to play in our game and it's a completely complicated
situation because we have a great player but we do not have a place for him but there was a time
he used to play in the in the midfield right but now now he's yes but because of his
of his best season in Arsenal now we don't use it in this position he's a left back again right
yeah yeah yeah okay then well then of course the best moment for you was that Jarem Csuk goal
Jarem Csuk the Valencia striker I think he was a substitute in this game right he came on late and
and he managed to win the game for you in the 80th minute I thought it was a lovely first touch
or did I say something wrong he did similar thing when Dobrik scored the goal on previous Euro if you
remember this we played against Sweden and it was the last minute of extra time and Dobrik
scored the goal and something was similar in this match yeah but played only for several minutes and
score wonderful goal and yeah now these are these are great stories and I thought his first touch
was exquisite it was just such a lovely delicate first touch and I heard people on an English
podcast describing it as an Bergkamp-esque first touch yeah and then he put it past Dubravka it was
barely it barely crossed the line yeah the defender almost almost kicked it out almost cleared it out
but fortunately for your team it went in and how happy were you at that moment
yeah and it was a wonderful moment of course it's not was it wasn't a moment like this
Dobrik but it was a great moment because we hopefully won the match and oh you did you did
yeah and thankfully thanks thankfully you won it yeah and and one thing which I noticed is that
in this match were great players who needed to change the team or who wanted to get some
offer from right European teams because our like stars didn't show the game which they had to show
our player Jernčok, Šaparenko and even Zinčenko who aren't like stars now they showed
they showed how our stars have to play yeah no that's always a motivation for players playing
at the Euros right especially if they think they can do better young players it's their chance to
show off their skills and hopefully be noticed you know because everybody is watching the Euros
all eyes are on the Euros so that's why it's it's the best opportunity you can ever have
if you score a fantastic goal or if you have a great assist or put on a great performance then
you will be noticed you know by some agents and hopefully offered an interesting job
yeah and if continue our awards in this Euro our main goal of team and Šahtardonesk is to sell
Sudakov and Sudakov had to be like a big star in this team but now he isn't because Šahtardonesk
wants to get about 18 millions and it's you know it's nearly impossible to get
well they are a big player in the European football Šahtardonesk you know they have been around for a
while did Mudrik also come from Šahtardonesk yeah Michael Mudrik right so you might remember him
how expensive he was and I don't I don't even okay don't get me wrong he's a good player but
I don't think he was worth that kind of money and I think you got an absolute bargain there
Šahtardonesk you know yeah because I couldn't understand why he cost so many money because it's
it's impossible that player had one great season one season not two not three one season in Ukraine
and he was enough it was enough yeah sometimes these stories happen and I'm happy for you I'm
happy for your country for Mudrik I want I we wanted him at Arsenal now he he's playing at
Chelsea he has like a 10 year 10 year contract or something as crazy as that I think he's getting
a little bit better like his start was very slow now I think his his last season was slightly better
so I'm sure he will only he can only get better so yeah we can't play better but I don't know why
we can't because our players have a practic in European championships and they play in European
teams they don't play in Ukraine it's another level you mean your point is that these players
play well in European teams and they they cannot replicate it in the national team is that your
point yes because in Ukraine when we were talking about this euro it was mentioned like the best
Ukrainian team in history and players maybe were a little bit self-confident yeah no no it's true
because if you look at your your players they they really play for amazing teams you have you have an
arsenal player you have a Chelsea player you have a Valencia player you have how many players do you
have at Girona you know so there are two players and in this team we have 15 players from abroad
because before we have only two one maximum three players now we have 15 players from different
teams of Europe and but our play is well hopefully this win can kick start your campaign and you will
only get better it's about a team isn't it well look at England they have superstars and it doesn't
guarantee anything right it's about how these stars can work together and play as a team
and sometimes even sort of sacrifice their own ego a little bit you know it's about that as well
so Marianne it's been wonderful to have you on the podcast thank you very much for talking to me about
the Ukrainian team and I wish you all the best for the rest of the tournament you are my number three
team okay thank you too for this opportunity and to tell me about our team and Ukraine
all right fantastic take care and goodbye goodbye
and as usual here is the final segment of the Footgris podcast this is the language corner or
whatchamacallit this is where I explain to you some stuff regarding the English language so today
I want to look at a few phrases you could say idioms so Slovakia threw the spanner in the works
with their win over Belgium I said what does it mean well what does a spanner mean first of all
a spanner is like a metal tool with a sharp end and it's used to turn nuts and bolts
and imagine you throw this metal spanner into the works in some sort of machine
it will create a problem right it will create a disruption so that's a that's actually what
Slovakia did because no one expected them to beat Belgium so they really complicated this group
complicated in a good way for Slovakia of course they threw the spanner in the works
then I said Zinchenko bagged sorry then I said Zinchenko bagged an assist
if you bag an assist it means you sort of get or achieve an assist right so imagine you put it in
your bag and it's sort of you've got it you've got it so imagine Zinchenko makes an assist in a game
well then it's his it's in the statistics then it's something he has achieved right okay and
then I said when it comes to defending he does it in the game he does it in the game he does it in
comes to defending he doesn't exactly cover himself in much glory again I was talking about
Oleksandr Zinchenko for some reason I was talking about him a lot in this episode well no wonder he
is an arsenal player and I support arsenal now there's a phrase not to cover yourself in much
glory which is used in the English language in a slightly ironic way it's an understatement it's
a euphemism for saying that you had a really bad game or really poor game you were not impressive
at all and well we were talking about Oleksandr Zinchenko if you say when it comes to defending
he doesn't cover himself in much glory it basically means he's a bad defender but you say it in a
slightly humorous way I suppose it's a it's a funny phrase funny idiom that is used often in
in Britain okay guys I think that's it that's enough for today let me know if you know any
of these phrases if you use them let me know in the comments and as always don't forget to subscribe
to the Footglitch podcast because that is the only way that you can keep getting your feed right keep
getting your new episodes and in that way you will never miss any future episodes thank you very much
for listening I have been Zdenek Lukas thank you and take care bye bye