go up against

"That is why I say what I say about formations. If I showed you a shape of how we’d go up against someone else, you’d say 'you can't do that'. But I've seen him work it and I was like 'wow, this works, this is serious'."

To the influential prophet Lance Wallnau, Trump’s election means that Christians can now go up against the “gates of hell” in “the DOJ, in the government, in the IRS.”

Speaking even before the election, alongside the former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat-turned-Republican, he said: “There’s people of all different kinds of ideology and people that we’re going to have to go up against in that transition team and fight for our vision.”

Montana State was about to go up against Portland State, and my TV wasn’t carrying it.

Cleverly admitted the result was a "bit of a punch to the gut" as he had repeatedly warned his backers that "Kremlinology is a fool's game" - but supporters kept asking who he would prefer to go up against.