Lionesses defeated Spain 2-1 in quarter-final of Euro 2022

UEFA football

9.1 million tuned into watch England defeat Spain 2-1 in the Euro 2022 quarter finals.

7.6 million watched live on BBC1, slightly more than those who tuned in to the linear channel for the men’s final of Wimbledon, while another 1.5 million streamed the game through BBC iPlayer plus the BBC Sport website and app - with the content produced by Whisper. Fans had Georgia Stanway to thank for her dramatic extra time winner after England had originally fallen behind to their opponents.

This is more than double than the just under 4.5 million who watched the first game of the tournament, a 1-0 victory for the Lionesses over Austria. That time round, 3.7m watched on BBC1, with 750,000 streaming through BBC Sport and iPlayer.

Interest in the tournament has grown since it kicked off earlier this month, with England’s impressive performances gaining attention. They will face either Belgium or Sweden in the semi-finals on Tuesday 26 July, with those two to face each other on Friday 22 July.

The highest ever peak audience for women’s football in the UK is the 11.7 million who watched England’s defeat to the USA in the semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup.

Overall, the tournament is also expected to break records for overall TV viewership with it predicted that it will reach 250 million people worldwide. In addition, Euro 2022 has already broken the attendance record for the women’s Euros, with the 357,993 who attended during the group stage already more than the 240,055 who went to the matches at the 2017 edition in the Netherlands.