世界杯如火如荼，不管你是英语粉儿，还是铁杆球迷，或者足球盲，难道不应该借此机会学习或者温习一下比赛词汇和常见表达吗？

让我们从头开始吧。 

The qualification phase ended in November 2017.

世界杯资格赛阶段在2017年11月就结束了。

“资格赛”英文叫qualification。 

In this period, the various countries’ national teams played against each other in order to qualify for (= succeed in getting into) the tournament.

在这段时间里，各国国家队为了成功晋级而互相比赛。获得比赛资格英文叫做“qualify”，比如：

Nigeria was the first team to qualify for the World Cup.

尼日利亚是第一个获得世界杯小组出线的队伍。

From a field of 211, a total of 31 teams qualified.

在211场比赛中，总共有31支队伍获得了参赛资格。 

 “field”在这里的意思是“所有参赛的人或队伍”。

As always happens, the host nation (= country where the World Cup takes place – this year, Russia) qualified automatically.

按照惯例，主办国(今年是俄罗斯)自动获得参赛资格。

主办国：host nation

The resulting 32 teams were put into eight groups of four teams.

由此产生的32支队伍被分成8组，每组4支。

The next phase – the ‘tournament phase’ or ‘group stage’ – will kick off in Moscow on June 14th when the host nation will face Saudi Arabia.  

下一阶段——“锦标赛阶段”或“小组阶段”——将于6月14日在莫斯科拉开帷幕，届时主办国将与沙特阿拉伯对阵。 

锦标赛阶段或者小组赛阶段英文是‘tournament phase’ or ‘group stage’。

During the month that follows, all the teams in each group will play against each other.

在接下来的一个月里，每个小组的所有球队都将互相比赛。 

The two top-scoring teams from each group will then go through to the next phase and the bottom two, sadly, will leave the competition.

每组中得分最高的两支球队都将进入下一阶段，不幸的是，最后两支球队将退出比赛。

During this phase, people often use the expression ‘the group of death’ to refer to a group that stands out because it has more talented teams than any other.

在这一阶段，人们经常用“死亡之组”这个词来指代那些强队集中的小组。

死亡之组英文叫做 “the group of death”。

This year may be a little different, however, as many of the teams that would usually be considered the favourites to win, for example Italy, Chile and Cameroon, did not qualify for the tournament.

然而，今年可能会有一点不同，因为很多球队通常被认为是夺冠的热门球队，比如意大利、智利和喀麦隆，却没有取得世界杯的参赛资格。

比赛中最被看好取胜的人或者球队叫做favourite。用法是后面跟不定式，例如：

Brazil are favourites to win this year's World Cup.

巴西队是今年世界杯赛的夺冠热门。

The 16 finishers of the group stages will now enter the second and final stage of the World Cup – the knockout stage. 

小组赛的16名选手将进入世界杯的第二阶段，也是最后阶段——淘汰赛阶段。

淘汰赛阶段：knockout stage

In the first round, the winner of each group will face the runner-up of another group and the winners of those matches will then go through to the quarter finals.  

在第一轮比赛中，每组的获胜者将对阵另一组的亚军，比赛的获胜者将进入四分之一决赛。

四分之一决赛：quarter final

In this nail-biting phase, teams are knocked out (= removed from the tournament after a defeat).

在这个紧张的阶段，球队被淘汰出局。

淘汰出局：be knocked out

The two losing teams of the semi-finals will take part in a playoff in order to decide third place. 

半决赛中失利的两支球队将参加季后赛，以决定第三名。

半决赛：semi-finals

季后赛：playoff

第三名：third place

In the knockout stage, if a match ends in a draw (=equal points), two 15-minute periods of extra time are played. If the score is still level, a penalty shoot-out decides the winner, each team taking turns to have a set number of kicks at the goal.

在淘汰赛阶段，如果一场比赛以平局结束，就会有两个15分钟的加时赛。如果比分仍然是平的，点球大战将决定谁获胜，每个队轮流射门。

平局 ：draw

点球：penalty shoot-out 

So who do you hope will lift the World Cup trophy on July 15th? Is it the defending champions (= team who won the last tournament), Germany, or one of the other favourites to win?

那么你希望谁能在7月15日举起世界杯奖杯呢?是卫冕冠军(上届世界杯冠军)，德国，还是其他夺冠热门之一?

奖杯：trophy

卫冕冠军：defending champion

也许你会支持弱者(球队最不可能赢)，或者是第一次出征的国家之一，巴拿马或者冰岛。不管你支持谁，欣赏一届精彩绝伦的世界杯吧!

Perhaps you’ll be supporting the underdog (= team least likely to win) or one of the debut (= first time) nations, Panama or Iceland. Whoever you support, have a fabulous World Cup!

弱者：underdog

首次出征：debut