2-nil and 3-3: how to say football scores in English

The Euro 2012 tournament in Ukraine and Poland has begun so

now is an ideal time to look at how we speak about football
scores in English.
On television and radio the results are read in a straightforward
way: England one, France one; Holland one, Germany two,
etc.
However, we use a different style when we speak informally
about scores.
Draws
If the two teams have an equal number of goals at the end of
the match we say it’s a draw, or that the teams drew.
When speaking about a 0-0 result, we can say any of the
following:
 It was a nil-nil draw.
 It was nil-nil.
 They drew nil-nil.

Let’s say the final score was 1-1. We could say:

 It was one-all.
 It was a one-all draw.
 It was one-one.
 They drew one-one.
The Poland-Greece game on the first day of the Euro 2012
competition finished 1-1. We could use any of the above or we
could say:
 Poland and Greece drew one-one.
 Poland drew one-one with Greece.
Wins
Another early game in the Euros finished Russia 4 Czech
Republic 1.
For this result we could say any of the following:
 Russia won four-one.
 It was four-one to Russia.
 Russia won by four goals to one. (a little more formal)

Away wins
In an English Premier League match there is a home
team and an away team. The home team is always written
first, regardless of the final score:
Chelsea 0 Newcastle 2 (We see that Chelsea were the
home team because they’re written first.)
However, when we speak about the result the winner comes
first and we put the ‘two’ before the ‘nil’:
Chelsea 0 Newcastle 2
 Newcastle won two-nil.
 .
or
 It was two-nil to Newcastle.
 Newcastle beat Chelsea two-nil.
We could also say:
 Chelsea lost 2-0 to Newcastle.

How to speak about a result after penalties

When a match goes to penalties after extra-time we say the
team won on penalties.
Let’s say the final score was Barcelona 2 Real Madrid
2 and then in the penalty shoot-out Barcelona scored five
penalties and Real four.
We’d say:
 It was two-two and Barcelona won five-four on
penalties.
Other sports…