to be the hot/firm favourite - to be the person/team that everyone believes and expects will win
to trash - to beat sb/another team very convincingly to clinch - to succeed in winning sth, having first had to fight long and hard for it
to be all square - to have equal points
to send (somebody) off - to order sb to leave the field during a match because they have done sth seriously wrong
to shatter a record - to breake a record by a large margin (margin - difference in points)
to award a team a penalty - to give a team the possibility to score a goal
Sport (verbs) 