“Giant-killing”

Definition

When a small club or unfancied nation knocks off one of the sport’s superpowers. The bigger the gap between the teams, the bigger the giant-killing.

Origin

Borrowed from Jack and the Beanstalk and adopted by English soccer over a century ago, mostly thanks to the FA Cup, where tiny part-time clubs get drawn against the giants of the game and occasionally slay one.

Used in a sentence

“Paraguay beating Germany? That’s the biggest giant-killing this tournament’s seen in years.”