England Women's World Cup Quarter Final Had More Viewers Than The FA Cup Final
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More people watched England Women make it into the semi final of the World Cup than watched Manchester City batter Watford in the FA Cup final, according to television viewing figures.
Phil Neville's Lionesses made it through to the semi final of the World Cup by beating Norway 3-0 on Thursday night in impressive fashion.
The match was shown on BBC and drew the corporations third highest amount of viewers for sport in 2019. According to the Times a peak audience of 7.6 million watched the last 16 game against the Scandinavians.
The FA Cup final reached a peak of 7.4 million and had an average of 6.9 million, with the World Cup game grabbing an average of 6.8 million.
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Those figures mean that only Wales and England's clash in the Six Nations in February, with Wales winning 21-13 on the way to a Grand Slam, and Chelsea's loss to Manchester United in the FA Cup last season are above the quarter final in terms of viewers for sport on the BBC.
Wales' win brought in 8.9 million viewers whilst Chelsea's loss, also in February, brought in 8.1 million viewers, far better than the final between Manchester City and Watford.
Even United's win over Arsenal, in the fourth round of the FA Cup, had more viewers than City's win at Wembley in May.
Whilst City's performance was impressive, and rounded off their domestic treble, the game had little drama with Pep Guardiola's side running out as comfortable 6-0 winners.
Four of England's five games so far in France have earned them enough viewers to be in the top 12 of BBC's most watched sports this summer.
The group games against Argentina and Scotland are joined by the knockout games against Cameroon and Norway, with only the match against Japan missing out, when the Lionesses were already through.
Next up for Neville's team is their hardest match to date. They take on favourites USA in the semi final on Tuesday, after the reigning champions beat the hosts on Friday.
England drew with USA earlier this year in the SheBelieves Cup. The match finished 2-2 with the Lionesses going on to win the tournament.
They'll no doubt be an even bigger audience for the team on Tuesday night, can they go all the way and become World champions?
Topics: Manchester City, Watford, Football News, Phil Neville, England, FA Cup, Women's World Cup, World Cup, Norway, France, USA
