Shadowing Practice: José Mourinho • Tactics, Inter 3 Barcelona 1 • Masterclass - Learn English Speaking with Video
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112 sentences
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This is 2010
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Champions League semi -final first leg at the San Siro, Inter -Barcelona.
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And we played with Julio Cesar in goal, we played with the back four, Maicon, Lucio, Samuel and Zanetti.
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And then we had during the game a
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different positioning in relation to the movement of Barcelona players
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and to our analyse of our difficulties and after also analysing our possibilities of hurting the opponents.
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He's a two -leg, the first leg at home,
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and obviously we know that the second leg in Barcelona will be even a more difficult match for us to play.
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But basically this was Mota and Cambiasso and Schneider, Eto 'o and Pandev and Diego Milito
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and in some moments of the game we bring Pandev more to the inside
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and Eto 'o more close to Diego
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and being most occupying the central zone with almost a diamond
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but giving Eto 'o the chance to try to be more close to Diego but this was the basic situation
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Barcelona at that time even still today
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Even before that, the back four, and then Busquets, Xavi Keita,
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Iniesta was not starting the game.
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And then Ibrahimović was the striker, this was Pedro, and this is the guy,
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I forget the name, some player that they had there.
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Messi, this was the guy,
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and it was with him that we started by analysing and trying to predict the game and trying to anticipate the problems.
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At that time they had Ibra as a nine
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and fixing the centre -backs and Messi was playing from the right
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but obviously with the freedom to go to many different areas.
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Daniel Alves was the player to go forward all the time and to try to create this situation here.
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Our decision basically was what we are going to do
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when this situation happened of Messi going in between the lines and Alves going forward are we going to get
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Zanetti on
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Messi but then he will be dragged out of position
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and then Alves will be all the time in here
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and then Pandev they are going to win playing almost as left back how are we going to
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resolve this situation and the situation for us was very very clear
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which was he cannot play alone when he come in between the lines
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so this player here must be a player totally in control
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of this area here always in communication with the left back
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and there is a moment where he becomes yours
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and I stay in the zone but
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if in a certain moment you were attracted by other positions
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and Messi goes into these positions in between the lines you have to decide to go
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but then if you decide to go you have to defend Alves
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so there was a combination of of ideas but basically everything was around not let Messi play.
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I remember after the game the press was was telling about using a word in Italy
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they were using the word gabia that
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that I think the real translation is about you know like like a jail like a jail to Messi,
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because in the end we didn't play man -to -man,
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but Zanetti, Mota, Cambiasso, everybody was responsible for any position that Messi could go.
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Even if Messi sometimes was trying to go more to this side here, he would always go.
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And then Schneider was going to close.
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So our defensive approach was based on this positional problem and probably the only positional problem that we had.
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Apart from that, we just need to be really compact and don't give them too much space.
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They are going to have the ball more than us, much more than us, Obviously,
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because many, many times they were moving the ball without hurting and we must be mentally strong to cope with that, let them have the ball,
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but not creating many chances for us.
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The second part of the plan was exactly how to hurt them, how to hurt them because he's a first leg at home.
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We need to win the match, we need to score goals.
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What was the strategy to try to hurt them?
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Obviously, that's the strategy to try to hurt them was in our attacking transition, the moment we recover the ball.
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And we knew, of course, the way of their building up, going with Alves and Maxwell forwards really,
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really wide and giving lots of spaces.
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And then, because we were always trying to make it compact and bringing Pandev,
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Etu all to the inside and to make it a very compact area, letting the ball go to the sides.
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And then when they define the side, then we decide that this is the trigger for us to press
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and the point in here was even
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if we don't have the white player in a clear position to attack these spaces behind
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Maxwell
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and Alves was to get players into these positions from the compact block
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we had not to be afraid to attack these spaces where we are going to hurt them
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And we had Maikon that was absolutely phenomenal that night attacking these spaces against a player that we knew very,
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very well, Maxwell, very strong with the ball, but not so strong in the recovering of these spaces.
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Alves, of course, the culture of Barcelona was for Alves to go always in -depth, in -depth, in -depth and attacking the spaces
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that normally opponents were going to give them because of Messi coming to the inside.
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And then we needed to attack these spaces where Puyol and Piqué, they were very exposing.
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And we knew that they were very strong on the defensive transition in the opposition half.
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So we knew that the places where they lose the ball,
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they were very, very strong by trying to press and push it up and close every possible space.
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But then we knew that also because that was not the kind of challenge that they had to face week in,
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week out in the Spanish league they were not
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so good coping with the spaces
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and we had very fast people we had very fast people attacking the spaces
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and we had people with the right mentality
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and the right coaching of arriving into these positions so we were fundamentally going from a defensive low block but going very,
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very strong with three, four, five players into attacking positions in the transition.
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And it worked.
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I think it worked and it's quite hard to say
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when we had 30 % of ball possession and the opposition had 70%, but I think we were more close, more close.
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We had more chances, not chances, chances, But opportunities that we can read, we had more after the 3 -1,
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we had more chances to score the fourth than to be really in trouble.
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We were totally in control.
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The second goal is exactly what I was saying before.
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Barcelona very strong and very well educated to...
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The moment they lose the ball to try to press
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and to try to kill immediately the opposition counter -attack
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because this is the area where they want to play all the time.
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And we were educated to attack the spaces behind them.
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So in this situation here we had always lots of players ready to attack the space behind both fullbacks.
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Which player should attack these spaces?
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Anyone one.
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In this case, the player that attacked the space was Milito.
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And then when the ball reached Milito in this area here is a question of who is going to arrive,
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us or them. And
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we were very adapted and very coached and also with the right mentality
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and the right effort and the right ambition to make people arrive in here.
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So when the ball gets into a player here, in this case it was Milito, now the point is, looking at this,
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how many whites, how many oranges are going to get into the scoring position.
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And I know that this is the guy that is going to arrive, which is Maicon, is going to arrive in here
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but we have also to give sequence of this i think we have also um a pandev
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and and maybe schneider also coming so we we after
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that ball to milito we managed to put two
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or three players more was schneider and eto or schneider and and and
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and pandev arriving arriving also here plus the incredible run of of my con how many of them
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they were arriving was more difficult for them I think Keita Busquets, they couldn't cope with this run.
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I think Maxwell and Messi or Pedro in this position, they never thought that my coin was going to arrive.
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So the second and the third goal, they had this similarity of his hurting them in the attacking transition.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “José Mourinho • Tactics, Inter 3 Barcelona 1 • Masterclass”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: space, player, ball, Messi, position. This video has 112 sentences and 1481 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:04. The speaker talks at a steady 123 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| arrive verb | /əˈɹaɪv/ | To reach; to get to a certain place. |
| transition noun | /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/ | The process of change from one form, state, style or place to another. |
| compact adjective | /kəmˈpækt/ | Closely packed or densely constituted; having much material in a small volume. |
| defensive adjective | /dɪˈfɛn.sɪv/ | Intended for defence; protective. |
| recover verb | /ɹɪˈkʌvɚ/ | To get back, to regain (a physical thing; in astronomy and navigation, sight of a thing or a signal). |
| opponent noun | /əˈpəʊ.nənt/ | One who opposes another; one who works or takes a position against someone or something; one who attempts to stop the progress of someone or something. |
| educate verb | /ˈɛd͡ʒ.əˌkeɪt/ | To instruct or train. |
| mentality noun | /mɛnˈtæləti/ | A mindset; a way of thinking; a set of beliefs. |
| defend verb | /dɪˈfɪnd/ | To ward off attacks against (something or someone). |
| diamond noun | /ˈdaɪ.ə.mənd/ | A glimmering glass-like mineral that is an allotrope of carbon in which each atom is surrounded by four others in the form of a tetrahedron. |
| translation noun | /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/ | The conversion of text from one language to another. |
| possession noun | /pəˈzɛʃn̩/ | A control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights. |
| sequence noun | /ˈsiː.kwəns/ | A set of things next to each other in a set order; a series. |
| difficulty noun | /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/ | The state of being difficult, or hard to do. |
| define verb | /dɪˈfaɪn/ | To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| left back noun | A defender who normally plays on the left side of the field. |
| build up verb | To erect; to construct. |
| going forward adverb | In the immediate future and beyond. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 4 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, couldn't, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, possession /pəˈzɛʃn̩/, relation /ɹɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, ambition /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/
- Long words — get the stress right: mentality /mɛnˈtæləti/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, phenomenal /fɪˈnɒmɪnəl/, anticipate /ænˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/, similarity /ˌsɪm.ɪˈlæɹ.ɪ.ti/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like arrive, transition, compact.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.