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You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast. Love football, learn English.

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Are the French fans concerned that their team isn't playing beautiful football and scoring a lot of goals?

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How does their biggest star Mbappe feel playing with a mask?

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What role does Olivier Giroud, the top goalscorer of the French team of all time, have in the French team?

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And what's the meaning of the expressions to give someone stick and to give someone leeway?

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Hello listeners, I'm Zdenek Lukas and you have just tuned into the Footglitch Podcast, a football podcast which can help you improve your English.

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And today I'm joined by a Frenchman, Maxime from Lyon. Hi Maxime, am I pronouncing your name correctly?

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Beautiful, beautiful, in the perfect way.

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Okay, Maxime. Well, you were recommended to me by my student David as a French team expert and that's exactly what we need here because we haven't talked about the French team yet at Euro 2024.

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Yeah, all right, nice to join. I hope I'll be able to provide good insights about the French team.

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I'm sure you will. So let me start like this, Maxime. I have to be honest with you. I haven't really been impressed by the French team yet. It may all change, but so far...

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It's normal because you will never be really impressed by the way that the French team is playing because that's actually not our style. The style of Deschamps, our team manager, is to win.

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It's not to actually provide tiki-taka or the good quality of the Spanish team or even like the English team, but our game is solely focused on winning.

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So we have a strong physical team that is super efficient and at the end of the day, we're going to win the game. So yeah, that's the reason why you were actually not impressed.

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We were actually bored. All the French fans are like super bored for all the games ever since, but it was like this on all the competition ever since Deschamps who covered the team.

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We always rely on a strong, confident style of playing and yeah, it's not beautiful, but it's efficient and at the end of the day, most often we win.

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Is this the way the French people all talk and the media? Because if you look at, for example, England, I would say you are kind of in the same boat because England are also heavily underperforming at this tournament.

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So could this be the difference here? Because in England, it's all negative, you know, and the media, they're really giving Gareth Southgate a lot of stick.

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Is it different in France that actually you get a lot of leeway to your manager, Didier Deschamps?

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Well, unlike Southgate, unlike England, we won. We actually won not the last World Cup, but the one before. We performed the last World Cup, we ended up in the final against Argentina on the last Euro as well.

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Well, even though we got kicked out, well, we always get results with Deschamps. That's the thing. Unlike Southgate, with Deschamps, we actually have like, if you take a look at the World Cup, we performed quite well.

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And that's the reason why we rely on Deschamps. We just don't like the style that he puts on the team.

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You put up with it. You put up with it.

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Yeah, yeah. But at the end of the day, as I say, like, we are confident in our team manager, even though we would like to have a different style because we're getting bored.

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But yeah, let's say that we rely on the result that he puts on. And we have a strong team. We rely on the team. We know that all of our players play on the main teams in Europe.

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So we know we're confident. We know that something is going to happen because Deschamps will never disappoint us only on the style of play, basically.

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Yeah. Well, it's a results business. So if he gets it done at the end of the day, that's what matters.

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Obviously, everybody wants to see amazing football with offensive style and a lot of goals. But if it doesn't work, like it's worthless. It's useless. Right.

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Exactly. Exactly. But then, you know, you're a fan, so you're watching 90 minutes or 120 minutes a game. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens.

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But at the end, you know, like deep inside you that, you know, we're going to win. We're going to score. There's going to be something either a penalty or like the ball's going to be countered by the defender and then on goal.

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You know that at the end, you know, it's going to happen. It's on the spirit. I was on the fan zone here in Geneva and like everybody knew, everybody knew, despite like all the different play that was put on by Belgium.

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You knew at the end that somehow we're going to turn this around and we're going to score by any way, like shoulder or something is going to happen. We know that that's how confident we are on our team on Deschamps.

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And the last result of the last competition that we were in just proves it. So, yeah, no, it's true. It makes sense. You know, you have some credit behind you and and history, history of winning.

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So it makes sense. Yeah. So I think in England, they are a little bit more nervous because they haven't won really anything for a long time, even though you could you could say that Southgate is also doing much better.

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You know, last Euro, he was in the final with the team and I believe he get to the semi final in the World Cup in Russia. I think he did. Right.

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He got knocked out in the semi.

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They need to finally have some results to have a major competition, win a major competition, bring it home, as they say. And yeah, like, unfortunately, we're going to win this year.

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Unfortunately.

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But yeah, they have very, very strong team. They have amazing players like they play in the best team in Europe. And I'm pretty sure that they're going to do great over this year.

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Yeah. But of course, we are here to talk about France. So you beat Belgium in the round of 16, 1-0.

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Fertongen own goal, you know, exactly. Got it done. Exactly. Got it done is what I explained since we started is that we kind of knew that it was going to happen.

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We didn't know that it was going to be again an own goal, but we knew that at some point we're going to turn it over, turn it around.

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And yeah, like, we've luck. We were able to put it on, but we create chances like we missed a lot of chances.

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But at the end of the day, we were able to put the goal. We were not so happy that Colomboini was getting subbed and getting in the field because we don't think he performed so well over the last games that he'd done with France and as well with Paris.

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It doesn't play often. So we didn't really understand why he was getting to the pitch. You can see it on the crowds.

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But at the end of the day, he provoked and got it. So in the goal. So yeah, we're really lucky.

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He was trying to cross the ball, I think. Right. But it went in deflected by Fertongen.

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Belgium, they only had, I'm looking at the stats here. So they only had two shots on target, no shots off target. You had two shots on target and 16 shots off target.

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So it seemed like you were the dominant team after all. To be honest, I will be honest with you. I did not like that game much. It seemed a bit tedious, a bit lackluster compared to the other games.

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But we talked about it. If this is how you get it done, then it's justified, of course. And hopefully you still have something in your locker, something to show to the fans.

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So far, you scored no goals in open play. Two own goals and one penalty.

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Our top scorer is on goal. But as I say, as long as you win, it's OK. But once you start to lose and you put on a game where you're not accurate, where you don't create that much, where it's more based on your defense and the fans are getting bored, there you start to be like, OK, you provide this quality and you don't even win at the end.

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So there's a problem. But as far as Dichamp is here, we always were able to reach more or less good results. We won a World Cup. It has been so long we didn't win such a major tournament. So far, we still have confidence.

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Let's see what's going to happen. We don't provide good quality, but I think it's a good sign because at the end...

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It's often a mark of champions that they don't play well and they somehow make it happen in the end.

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I need to ask you about your arguably your biggest star, Kylian Mbappe. I think in France he's the biggest star, of course.

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Tell me, so he got injured in the first game, in the opening game, right? He broke his nose and then since then he has been wearing this mask. Is it limiting him in any way?

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He was saying it. He was saying that he actually does. He sees the game in 3D. He was saying that the sweat gets blocked underneath the mask and fights so many different masks.

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I think it's the fifth mask that he tries to be able to find the right prototype, the right model that will fit him well.

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But he said that obviously it would strain him from being able to be as performance on the pitch. But yeah, it's unfortunate.

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We don't see the best Mbappe since the start of the competition, but it makes sense because we don't see the best Mbappe for the past year.

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It's been a long time that Mbappe is not playing at his best level. He's had a complicated season with the Paris Saint-Germain PSG team over the year.

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And he has affected, I think, a lot. And we can see it now on the pitch. It's not the same Mbappe as in the last World Cup, as in the last Euro.

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It's a very different one. I hope that he will be able to put on his A-game of the next game because it's going to be against Portugal, which is a very strong team.

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And we need Mbappe at his best level to be able to help us finally score on players.

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From open play, yeah. If anyone can do it, he can.

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Also, I have to say I'm a secret admirer of Olivier Giroud. Of course, he used to play for Arsenal and I'm an Arsenal supporter.

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Olivier Giroud is the top goalscorer of all time in the French team now, isn't he?

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I think so. I think so. It might. It might. It might. He's an amazing player.

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He's such a great help when you make the centre and you put the ball in the box and he's here always with the header.

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He's very good. We won with him and I don't really understand why he doesn't start now.

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Deschamps likes to put Mbappe as a striker, so that's the reason why now he's getting blocked.

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But, well, let's see. Let's see. Let's see. I think Mbappe is better on the sides and I think most of the French people will agree with me that Mbappe is better when he's on one side.

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And then he's able to provoke all the chances and Giroud is here to put the ball on the net.

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And we don't really understand why it's not happening now.

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But on the other hand, Mbappe has been playing at this position in the centre of the attack in Paris Saint-Gervain.

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I think Deschamps wants to keep this style and this position with him, even though we think it's a shame that it's like this.

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Giroud is a very good player and I wish he would be able to score some goals and make us win.

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Because in my opinion, it's going to be his last tournament with France. He's getting old.

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I think he's going to retire soon with the national team, unfortunately, because he's a very good player.

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Well, speaking of old players, you're going to take on Portugal, as you said, Cristiano Ronaldo.

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Yesterday he cried his eyes out after missing a penalty.

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So that's going to be a big, big story again, like Ronaldo against Mbappe, Ronaldo in the mask and sorry, Mbappe in the mask, Ronaldo without the mask.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's going to be a big story.

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But at the end, they won, they won, they won, even though he missed the penalty.

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Well, let's see, we have a tricky relationship with Portugal in the sense that they won the Euro 2016 over a goal on the last minutes from Hedder, the player that used to play in the one.

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And that was really tough, really tough for all the French people.

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We still have it in mind when they've been able to digest it. So it's time for a revenge now.

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Exactly, exactly. We hope we're going to be able to make a good revenge in the right way, provide good style of play, even though most likely we will not.

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But at least I hope this will be able to win. And yeah, we want to go ready against Belgium.

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It's always good to win against your brothers and win against the Portugal.

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It will be a tough game. But again, Portugal, not one of the best teams in the tournament, you would say.

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So we will see what happens. What is your prediction then?

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Well, with France, as I say, we are confident that we're going to win.

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I knew that against Belgium is going to be really tough because Belgium is such a strong team as well, even though they didn't make a good start in tournaments such as France, such as Portugal.

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I think it's hard to actually predict anything because the start of the tournament for the big team has been really complicated.

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So let's see. You will say Spain started so good, but you've seen that on the last round it was really complicated for Germany as well.

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For Italy it's been extremely complicated because they got knocked out by Switzerland.

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France has been complicated. For the big teams, it's really complicated. So let's see. Let's see what's going to happen.

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I think Portugal is a very good team, has so many good players from the best team in Europe.

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I hope we're going to be able to make it. It's going to be a very interesting game because both physical teams have excellent players on the pitch.

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So I'm looking forward to watch the game. And as you said, we have a revenge to take.

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And I'm sure and I hope that we're going to be able to do it.

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So yeah, I'd say that we're going to win. I don't know if we're going to win over the 90 minutes, but I'm sure that at the end of the day,

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we're hoping that we're going to be able to make it to the next round.

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And do you think that the Portuguese style will actually suit you a little bit more?

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Because I can imagine they will not park the bus like other teams might have done against you.

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Because knowing the strength of your team and your players, most of your opponents would actually play more defensively.

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So is it possible that because it's not in the Portuguese nature, this might actually suit you more?

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We are a better against team which are providing a good style, which are actually willing to play against us.

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We are the worst when we're playing against a block, defensive block such as Belgium, which is going to play exactly the same style.

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And then it's just going to be an opposition of who's going to be able to create individually a chance and then score, just like what happened with Colombo.

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So indeed with Portugal, we hope that there's going to be more space to take and Mbappé is going to be able to,

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because Portugal is going to be willing to play against us, we hope that it's going to be able to create us some chances, some open field for Mbappé.

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For, yeah, let's see who's going to play, Dembele or Colombo.

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We are very fast player and let's hope they're going to be able to take those opportunities.

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But let's see as well, because you never know. Everybody knows us. Everybody knows that we are this kind of team,

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which will take on every opportunity and go really fast on the forward.

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So let's see if they're not going to park the bus. I hope that they will not because we're better against those which actually aren't doing it.

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Let's hope they're not listening to this podcast now.

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We might reveal some information about the way you will play.

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But okay, all the best to you in this game. You might even avenge the Czech team with that if you beat Portugal, I guess.

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Let's hope we will avenge you guys. Let's hope.

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Thanks. Thanks a lot, Maxime. Thank you for being on the podcast. It's been a pleasure.

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It was a pleasure. Likewise. Thanks a lot.

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Take care. Bye bye. Bye.

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All right. And as you know, we are not done yet.

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Here is the language corner. In this part of the show, as always, I will be doing my job that is teaching English.

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And this time we're going to take a look at three expressions.

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At the beginning of this interview with Maxime, I said in England, the media are giving Gareth Southgate a lot of stick.

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Now, this is a lovely little British English idiom.

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If you give someone a lot of stick, it pretty much means that you criticize someone.

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Now, this is a very common idiom, a very common expression.

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It's used in Britain all the time in football, but also outside football, because, you know, we live in this kind of era, don't we?

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Especially on social media, if you don't like something, we give the person we don't like a lot of stick. Right?

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Of course, the football fans give the players of their team stick as well when they are not performing well,

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when they are missing opportunities, when they are playing below par. OK?

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So that's to give someone stick.

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But I also asked, is it different in France that the media, the fans, give a lot of leeway to Degier Deschamps? Right?

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So this was like a contrasting point I was making.

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And if you give someone leeway, it's kind of the opposite.

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It's kind of saying you give someone freedom or you tolerate someone. OK?

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You let them do their job because you know, in this case, the French fans, they believe in Gareth Southgate because, sorry,

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they believe in their manager, Degier Deschamps, not Southgate.

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They believe in him because he has already brought them success in the past.

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So they know that even when the French team are not playing well, they know that he will bring results. Right?

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That's why they kind of let him off. They give him leeway.

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They give him freedom in doing his job without giving him too much stick. Right?

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So it is kind of the opposite. At least this is the way it looks like based on this interview and based on the interviews I've had with the England supporters.

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OK, let's have one more.

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I was also referring to the fact that the French are not exactly playing a beautiful football style.

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And I said, well, but it looks like you guys, the French, you put up with it.

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So if you put up with something, you kind of tolerate it.

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You sort of let it happen because, you know, it could be worse. Right?

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You know, in this case, the Degier Deschamps will bring results.

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So that's why, you know, you might as well put up with it.

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The French, they don't really give the champs a lot of stick.

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They give him leeway and they put up with his style. Right.

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This is the way you can use these three interesting expressions.

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Thank you very much, guys, for listening to this episode of the Footgrish podcast.

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As always, I'm going to have to ask you to support this podcast.

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But today, let's do it in a different way.

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I'm going to send you on a mission.

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You've got a quest and your quest is to go to Apple Podcasts.

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Just write one, two sentences about this podcast if you want.

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It's going to help this podcast.

170
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:18,000
This is your quest. This is something you have to do. OK.

171
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:21,000
It's compulsory. It's mandatory.

172
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:24,000
OK. I guess that's it for today.

173
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,000
It's been great to talk to you again.

174
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And until next time, cheers. Bye bye.