Football Phrase of the Week: Ended Their Hopes

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Football Phrase of the Week: Ended Their Hopes

In this football phrase of the week we look at the expression, ‘Ended Their Hopes‘ after the final day of the season in England and in Germany. 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. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.

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DF: Hello everyone. This is Damian from the Languagecaster team and I hope you are all doing well. Apologies for the slight delay in posting this but welcome to this week’s football phrase which, of course, is when we look back at some of the football language from the weekend. And today we look at the expression, ‘to end the hopes of another team‘.  

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (from an Arsenal fan)

DF: Right, most of the 2024-25 European domestic seasons are now over – no more league games until August. But before we go into the transfer window or indeed the FIFA Club World Cup in June, or the Women’s Euros, let’s take a look back at a couple of stories from the final weekend of the season.

First of all, we are going to look at Nottingham Forest in England who almost made it into next year’s Champions League but ultimately had to settle for the Europa Conference League after finishing in 7th place in the Premier League. Before their final match against Chelsea, who were also in the race for Champions League places, Forest needed a win and a hope that either Aston Villa or Newcastle would drop points in their games to allow Forest to qualify for the Champions League next season. This would have been an amazing feat as it would have been the first time Forest had been involved in this competition since their glory days in 1979 and1980; they won the European Cup twice Even more amazing is the fact that Forest almost went down; they were almost relegated last season – they finished 17th – so it has been a remarkable turn around for them. However, Chelsea defeated Forest 1-0 and so ended their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. Forest had hopes of qualifying before the game but these hopes were lost or ended when Chelsea beat them.

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Another example of hopes ending was from Germany where Arminia Bielefeld – a team from the third tier – managed to make the final of the German Cup (that’s the Pokal). This was a remarkable feat – they even beat holders Leverkusen and three other Bundesliga teams in the earlier rounds – but unfortunately they were unable to defeat Stuttgart in the final. Stuttgart ended their hopes.

Examples

1. Third-division side Arminia Bielefeld saw their hopes of a fairytale ending to their stunning run to the German Cup final ended by top-flight Stuttgart in Berlin.
2. The defender’s second-half strike meant Enzo Maresca’s side finished fourth in the Premier League and ended Forest’s own hopes of returning to Europe’s top table

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (from a Ferencvaros fan)

Do you know of any other similar words or phrases used to describe this phrase? And how would you say this phrase in another language that you know? Let us know by dropping a post on our forum or on the comments section below this post here at Languagecaster.com.

Enjoy all the football this week and we’ll see you again later on in our regular weekly language podcast when we’ll be talking about the Champions League final and of course explaining more football language. See you soon. Bye bye.

Related Vocabulary

Football Language Glossary