Russia’s match against Spain last Sunday became one of the three most-watched sporting events of the past 20 years, according to a report cited by the RBC news website Wednesday.
Research by the Mediascope company said that 18.6 percent of the Russian population watched Sunday’s game, or 58 percent of those who turned on their television at the time of the match, according to RBC.
The first and second most-watched games were Russia’s semifinal match against Spain at the 2008 Euros and its World Cup game against Japan in 2002, which had ratings of 21 and 25.1 percent respectively,even though Russia lost both games.
Russia has progressed to the quarterfinals of the World Cup and will be facing Croatia on July 7 for a ticket to the semifinals.