Real Madrid wins its third-straight Champions League title
Hi everyone, it’s Jeff and welcome to Episode 51 of Plain English, the podcast the goes at the right speed for English learners. If you’re a soccer fan, you might have been watching the dramatic Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool, and that is the topic for today’s episode. The phrase we’ll talk about later on is, “I’ll take you up on that.” That’s a good phrase to use when someone has offered you something.
Now, I want everyone in Japan to listen closely. You may remember a listener, Andy from Japan, specifically requested a Japanese version of the episode transcript—and his wish is my command. Starting with this episode, our web site will feature instant translations of difficult words and phrases from English to Japanese. You’ve probably already heard that we have this feature for Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and French. And today we are introducing our fifth language for the interactive transcripts.
Here’s how they work. Just go to PlainEnglish.com/51 for this episode. Find the tab called Japanese and click on it. You’ll see the full transcript of the episode, but some words will be highlighted in red. When you get to one of those, just put your mouse over the word and you’ll see the Japanese translation of that word. It even works on your phone. If you are listening on your phone, the only difference is that you have to tap on the red highlighted word to see the translation.
The reason I’m doing this, by the way, is that there are a lot of new listeners from Japan. I can tell from the media host I use, but also from new people signing up to the email list and writing to me. So, for some reason, the program is becoming more and more popular in Japan, so JR and I wanted to add support for Japanese. So, if you are in Japan, check out the web site and tell your friends.
Real Madrid wins thirteenth Champions League title
Sometimes the biggest contributions come from the most unlikely places: Gareth Bale was benched amid controversy by Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane after a difficult season. But all that was forgotten as the Welshman scored twice when it mattered most: in the UEFA Champions League Finals against Liverpool in Kiev.
The two goals scored by Bale were the difference in the finals game, as Real Madrid defeated Liverpool three goals to one, sealing their third straight Champions League title. His first goal was a work of art. He took a pass from Marcelo Vieira and, with his back to the goal, jumped up, kicked the ball over his head, and into the goal, breaking a 1-1 tie. He then took a celebratory dive onto the sideline.
Bale added one more for good measure, a long-range goal in the final minutes of the game. Karim Benzema also scored for Real Madrid; Sadio Mané scored the only goal for Liverpool.
It was a night that will haunt Liverpool for years to come. The goalkeeper, German Lorius Karius, blocked several shots from Cristiano Ronaldo, but permitted three goals, including two embarrassing ones. At the beginning of the second half, in the 51st minute, the Liverpool goalkeeper rolled the ball out of the goal, but Madrid’s Karim Benzema casually stretched out his leg and knocked it right back in for a goal, giving the Spaniards the lead. Though Liverpool was able to tie the game later, they were only able to score the one goal. Gareth Bale didn’t come into the game until the 60th minute, but he immediately made an impression with his overhead bicycle kick to put his team back in the lead.
Then, with only 10 minutes left in the game, Gareth Bale took a long-range shot from 35 yards away—a shot that should have been blocked, but somehow slipped through the hands of Lorius Karius, giving Real Madrid the two-goal advantage that they would hold until the end of the game. When it was all over, Karius lay down on the ground, face down, in disbelief over what happened.
Liverpool also lost 25-year old forward Mohamed Salah to a shoulder injury in the first half of the game. The Egyptian was in obvious pain as he was pulled from the game; his participation in the World Cup for Egypt was in doubt. He went for X-rays after the game.
But the night belonged to the madrileños. Real Madrid became the fourth team to win three Champions League titles in a row and the first since Bayern Munich did it in 1976. It was the franchise’s fourth title in the last five years and the 13th in its illustrious, 116-year history.
Manager Zinedine Zidane was the first manager to have won three titles in a row with the same team. He said after the game: “To win three CL trophies with this club is magnificent. It’s an unbelievable feeling and we don’t quite realize what we have achieved yet.” He called Gareth Bale’s goal “magnificent” and within hours, commentators online were debating whether that goal was the best in Champions League finals history.
It was Cristiano Ronaldo’s fifth European Cup. Ronaldo made some headlines immediately after the game, saying, “It has been very nice playing for Real Madrid” in one interview, and “It was very nice being with Real Madrid” in another, adding only that the time to discuss his future would come in the next few days.
The game was played in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and attending the game proved to be quite an ordeal for many Liverpool and Real Madrid fans. The location was considered difficult to get to, with limited direct flights from Madrid and Liverpool, and few hotel rooms. Some people had to take a bus from Madrid—a 24-hour journey. Hotels were charging thousands of euros a night. Some of those people had to take the locals up on a particularly generous offer. A Facebook group started up called “Kyiv Free couch for football fans.”
Today I have a big hello to offer English teacher Sthefany and all her students in a city called Überlandia in Brazil. Sthefany works with individual adult and teenage students, who are learning English, and she also teaches an English class of students who are between six and sixteen years old at a place called FADESOM. She and her students are fans of Plain English and anxiously wait for each new episode. Let me tell you, if you are a teenager and you are listening to this show and following it and understanding it, then you are way ahead of the game. You’re definitely way ahead of where I was as a teenager—I studied French and there’s no way I could have understood a program like this as a teenager. So, keep listening to as much English as you can, follow Sthefany’s wise guidance, and you’ll be fluent in no time. Thank you so much to Sthefany for writing, but especially thank you to all of her students in Überlandia, Brazil, for being an important part of the Plain English community.
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