Thomas Sinicki, Media365: Published on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 at 9:49 PM EST.
Seleção fans followed their comrades in unison on Tuesday against the Czech Republic (2-1).
The enthusiasm is greater than ever in Portugal, where the victory over the Czech Republic (2-1) was watched in the country by more than five million viewers, or exactly 5.3 million. The result will be disappointing in France, but certainly not for the Portuguese as half the country (10.4 million people) was in front of their screens! Moreover, the French audience was not left out with around 4.6 million viewers on TF1, which was inevitably boosted by the presence of many Portuguese in the country.
This is a total that exceeds the Euro 2016 final
In Portugal, those 5.3 million are incredible, surpassing the result of the Euro 2016 final won by France (0-1 ap) with just 3.9 million domestic viewers. The average audience Tuesday evening was 3.4 million. Led by their veteran captain Cristiano Ronaldo (39) and another predecessor Pepe, who at 41 has become the oldest player in Euro history, the Seleção display one of the best teams in the competition.
In all positions, in particular, Bernardo Silva, Vitinha and Bruno Fernandes are available in midfield, or even Rafael Leao in front of Nuno Mendes on the left side, and the team is now led by Roberto Martinez (the former Spanish coach of Belgium who succeeded Fernando). Santos, after being eliminated from the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup, was disappointing for a long time on Tuesday in Leipzig. Their Saturday clash against Turkey, at 6pm, is expected to be followed by intense collective passion across the country.