Football Phrase of the Week: Nick a Win

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Football Phrase of the Week: Nick a Win

In this football phrase of the week we take a look at the phrase, ‘nick a win’ which is connected with the match played between Liverpool and Manchester United this week. You can read the transcript for this podcast 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.

Nick

DB: Hi there everyone. My name is Damon, and I am one part of the Languagecaster team and I hope you are all doing well. The other half of the team, Damian, is London, which is probably as cold as it is here in Tokyo! Welcome to our latest football phrase of the week.

This episode’s weekly football phrase is ‘nick a win’, which is used to talk about a way of winning a game.

Liverpool and Manchester United played an entertaining match this weekend, which ended 2-2. So neither team won. However, both teams had chances in time added on to score and win the game three-two. If, for example, Maguire, the Manchester United centre back, had scored after receiving the ball in front of Liverpool’s goal, we would say Man United nicked a win.

Steal

The idea behind this phrase is that maybe the winning goal came late in the game, or it was against the run of play. This is probably because ‘to nick‘ is slang for ‘to steal’. So, if a team scores late to win a match it feels a little unfair, as if they stole the game.

Here is an example from the Guardian talking about the match: “Both teams could have nicked victory in a frenzied finale. Fernandes almost caught out Alisson at his near post, Diogo Jota had a shot deflected over and Virgil van Dijk headed tamely at Onana from the resulting corner.”

Nick a Goal

You can also nick a goal. Often you might describe a team as playing very defensively and hoping to ‘nick a goal’ on the break. So, the team soaks up pressure and hits the opposition on the break, hoping to steal a goal.

Manchester United certainly didn’t come to Anfield hoping to nick a goal, they were very positive throughout the game. They almost did nick a win though!

How would you say this expression in another language that you know? Let us know by dropping us a line at admin@languagecaster.com.

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (Polish)

Yes, you are listening to Languagecaster and that message was in Polish. And we’ll be back with some more football language in our podcast later on in the week. Enjoy all the football. Ta-ra.

Related Terms

Glossary

Football Language Glossary