go toe to toe with

They won't go toe to toe with City, they can't.

"Iran would far more like to fight in the shadows using its terror groups and proxies rather than go toe to toe with Israel conventionally where it knows it would get a real hammering."

“Especially in this world — this Guy Ritchie universe where a lot of times the focus has been on these male characters — I thought would be really fun and interesting to introduce Susie, who can kind of go toe to toe with all of them.”

Yeah, we can go toe to toe with the Americans!’”

We are seeing more sides happy to go toe to toe with the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool and they are all conceding goals, when we have got used to seeing them completely dominate and control games.