A passenger on the plane watches Lord of the Rings as Australia heads towards the Matildas

soccer

By Andrew McCourtrey News.com.au

August 12, 2023 | 6:17 p.m

There must always be one.

Australia suffered Matildas fever in a collective sporting moment arguably not seen in the country since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Fans turned out in droves, not only to the games but also to live sites across the country to watch as the en masse and TV tapings plummeted as the nation tunes behind Australia.

While the TV ratings for Saturday night’s quarter-final that became the longest-running penalty shoot-out in FIFA World Cup history – men’s or women’s – have yet to be released, the ratings have only been skyrocketing game by game.

More than 3.5 million people watched Matildas’ round of 16 victory over Denmark on Monday night on Channel 7 – 3.18m on TV and 385,000 on Australia’s 7plus streaming service.

Even those numbers alone were enough to estimate every AFL Grand Final and State of Origin since 2016 as well as five of the past seven AFL Grand Finals. And even more football fans would have watched via Optus Sport, as well as all those on the live sites.

It was the highest viewership of any TV show so far in 2023, although it is expected to be eclipsed by the quarter-final against France and Wednesday night’s semi-final between the Matildas and England.

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There was pandemonium after Matilda brought down France as videos poured in of how people were tuning in to watch the match.

However, not everyone was watching the match as the vision of famous broadcaster Jacqui Felgate showed.

Sharing a video from the trip, it seemed like almost everyone was watching the tense shootout, which erupted into cheers after Cortnee Vine determined the winner of the shootout.

All but one person was watching Lord of the rings.

It seems crazy that no one would want to be a part of this collective moment with the rest of the nation, whether you like sports or not.

MCG fans – After turning off the big screens at the end of the regulation time – they reached for TVs wherever they could watch the tense shootout.

The Channel 7 AFL commentators, who were covering the Blues and Demons game, also had to watch.

AFL Media’s Michael Whiting even photographed the Adelaide Crows and Brisbane Lions coaches huddled around a telephone to watch the final stages of the match, delaying press conferences.

It was really wild scenes from coast to coast around Australia.

ABC anchor Tyson Whelan Create a great topic on social media Show fans celebrate across the country.

From Adelaide to Sydney, fans were absolutely blown away as Matildas reached the semi-finals for the first time.

And it’s set to get even messier now that the Matildas will face England in the World Cup semi-final at Stadium Australia on Wednesday night at 8pm AEST.

While we were able to get past world number 5 France on Saturday night, it’s getting tougher with world number 4 England.

While France withdrew from their third consecutive quarter-final, this will be England’s third consecutive semi-final, with the Lionesses placing third in 2015 in Canada and fourth in France in 2019.

This is as far as Matilda goes in the World Cup.

Maybe if Tillies made it to the final, that person would stop The return of the king And join the rest of the country’s festivities.