Weekly Football Phrase: Come out on top

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Weekly Football Phrase: Come out on top

In this football phrase of the week we look at the expression, ‘come out on top‘ which was used to describe PSG’s win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final first leg. 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. You can also find out more about this phrase in our football language forum. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us here.

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DF: Hello everyone. This is Damian from the Learn English Through Football team and I hope you are all doing well. I am based here in London and I have to apologise for the delay in releasing our weekly football expression from last week. It’s been very busy here in London and for Damon in Tokyo, Japan. But we are going to being talking about a phrase that emerged from the first leg semi-final of the Champions League last week.  

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in French)

DF: Yes, you are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast, or as we were known before, Languagecaster. And that message was in French.

Come out on top

DF: Right, as we know, it’s the business end of the season where lots of things are decided in football. We have just had the first legs of this year’s Champions League semi-finals and both games are really delicately poised. This means that we cannot really tell which team will make it to the final as the ties are still very close. Atletico Madrid and Arsenal drew 1-1, while PSG beat Bayern Munich 5-4 in their first leg in Paris. 

This game between the French and German champions was a wonderful occasion – nine goals and a host of other chances; lots of other chances. The game was played at high speed with both teams going for goal; that means they were attacking as much as they can. In a close game like this when one team wins we can often hear the phrase, ‘to come out on top‘ to describe the winner. So, in this game, PSG came out on top in the nine-goal thriller. 

To come out on top, then, is another way of saying that a team has won the game; but when we use this phrase it suggests that it was a difficult match or a close game. Other words that describe this kind of win would be ‘to be victorious’ or ‘to be triumphant’. So, we could say that PSG were victorious (or triumphant) in the game against Bayern. Or we could say that they triumphed over Bayern. They came out on top after a really exciting game of football. 

Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast (in German)

Goodbye

DF: OK, so on this week’s football expression we have looked at the phrase, ‘to come out on top‘. Can you think of an other word or a phrase that are maybe linked to this expression? And how about in another language that you know? So, we have opened a new post on our forum where you can find out more about this expression (come out on top) and you can also practise using this phrase there.

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster.com (Learn English Through Football Podcast) (from an Arsenal fan)

DF: That’s it for this week’s football expression: ‘to come out on top‘. And we’ll be back with our weekly podcast with more football language later on in the week. Enjoy all the football this week – lots of big European semi-final ties. And we’ll see you soon. Bye bye!

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