You can find everything about the World Cup in football: Competition news, topics, Futistietäjä, program, results and statistics on ‘s World Cup website. England and Australia will meet in the semi-final on Wednesday at 1 p.m.
On Tuesday, Spain made its way to the final of the women’s prestigious soccer competition for the first time, when it dramatically overthrew Sweden.
On Wednesday, the second host country of the World Cup, Australia, will try the same trick. Its best performance in global competitions is fourth place at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. In the World Championships, it has previously been at its best in the quarterfinals.
Australia will meet England, who celebrated European Championship gold in their home games last summer. At the World Championships, England has been at its best with bronze.
The Australian women’s national football team, the Matildas, have raised the hype even more with their wonderful moves and united Australians at the receivers. The team’s nickname comes from the popular Australian folk song Waltzing Matilda.
In a striking and amusing way, the unifying power of the games was visible during the quarter-final match. Australia eventually beat France in a blistering penalty shootout that required a total of 20 shots – the longest penalty shootout at the World Cup, including the men’s and women’s competitions.
After the match, videos filmed on the plane started circulating on social media. The videos show that all the passengers are excited about the penalty kick competition on the screens found in the seats of the plane.
Or all but one. One passenger is watching the Lord of the Rings movie. When the other passengers saw Courtney Vine positioning himself to take the historic penalty kick, he saw Gandalf.
The one who shared the case in X Jacqueline Felgate has received while writing this for his video 27.9 million impressions and almost 68,000 likes.
– The whole plane cheered when Frodo woke up after destroying the ring and saw his friend… I’m really moved, one commented.
The popularity confuses even Australians
For example BBC, New York Post and Guardian write about the rise in popularity of the Matildas. When Australia knocked out Denmark in the quarterfinals, more than 3.5 million TV viewers watched the match. In 2023, it was the biggest audience for any TV show in Australia.
In the France quarter-final, the number of TV viewers rose to 4.17 million. When Channel Seven’s streaming service is included, the figure rises to 7.2 million according to preliminary estimates.
The channel’s sports manager Lewis Martin said that “the tournament has brought Australia together in a way we haven’t seen in years”.
The Matildas’ popularity has prompted TV channels to find out historical statistics. More than eight million Australians watched in 2000 when Cathy Freeman ran for 400m Olympic gold in Sydney. After that By Pat Rafter and by Lleyton Hewitt achievements at Wimbledon and the 2003 men’s Rugby World Cup final attracted more than four million viewers.
The growth of streaming services makes comparison difficult, but the media estimated that the Matildas’ match in France drew the highest number of viewers around the receivers since Freeman’s run.
It should also be noted that hundreds of thousands of people watched Saturday’s France match in fan zones built in public places and stadiums, as well as in bars.
In addition, some watched the match through the streaming service Optus Sport. Its director of content Clive Dickens said the Australia-France match was the third most-watched broadcast in the service’s history, and the four-week period was the service’s best ever.
– This is huge because the characters and stories of the athletes capture the idea of what I call the new Australia, which is a much younger, more diverse generation, Dickens painted.
According to the BBC, the change is also illustrated by an example from the AFL league. The AFL is the hugely popular Australian men’s football league. The Melbourne Cricket Ground, with a capacity of over 100,000, showed the quarter-final between Australia and France on the big screen before the much-hyped AFL match between Carlton and Melbourne.
Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese already announced on Monday that he would support calls for a public holiday if Australia takes the World Cup.
Will the ecstasy still carry against England?
In the semi-final, Australia gets ecstatic support behind it at the same Sydney Olympic stadium where Freeman won his 400m Olympic gold. At that time in 2000, 112,500 spectators witnessed Freeman’s run in the stadium, now the stadium attracts about 82,000 people.
England head coach Sarina Wiegman stated that he does not consider England to be the early favourite.
– Well, first of all, I don’t think they are underdogs. They play at home. The stadium will be really full. So I think there are two teams that are very good, very strong and have grown during the tournament, Wiegman began at the press conference.
The fierce rivalry between Australia and England, which has previously been seen especially in rugby and cricket, also came up at the press conference. The Dutchman Wiegman said that he had asked other members of the national team about the setup. England skipper Millie Bright not more enthusiastic about it.
– Competition is a big thing, but you can have that with any opponent. They are here to beat us, we are here to beat them. At the end of the day it’s just football and we want to play our best game, Bright acknowledged.
Australia’s Swedish head coach Tony Gustavsson put off the pressure on England.
– Obviously, they are a huge favorite for the game. But if you add to that the belief that we have and the support and trust of the fans, which will be massive tomorrow…
Gustavsson also spoke about the emotional rollercoaster of the dramatic quarter-final against France. Australia wanted to make the good vibes visible and felt, so the players’ friends and families were allowed to come to the hotel to celebrate.
– We had a meeting the next day on the bus on the way to the airport, and then I said that from now on, everything in our operations only concerns the England match.
Pressures Gustavsson denied. He said the team felt they were in a privileged position because of the support shown by the Australians.
Australian goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold conceded to the press the struggle for hegemony between England and Australia.
– Anyone would drop us, it’s unthinkable. Probably many English people would like to see England drop us. But I think there are more Australians who would like us to knock off England.
England and Australia will meet in the second semi-final on Wednesday 16 August. at 1 p.m. The bronze match will be played on Saturday 19.8. at 11 o’clock and the final on Sunday 20.8. 13 o’clock.
You can find everything about the World Cup in football: Competition news, topics, Futistietäjä, program, results and statistics on ‘s World Cup website. England and Australia will meet in the semi-final on Wednesday at 1 p.m.