Abuja – FIFA on Friday said the Group D match between England and Uruguay on Thursday at the ongoing World Cup finals attracted the biggest television audience in the United Kingdom in two years.

A report by the FIFA Media Office said that an average of 17.9 million viewers in UK watched the live coverage of Uruguay’s 2-1 win over England.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the match was both teams’ second group match in the 32-team tournament which started on June 12.

The match was Uruguay’s first win at the Mundia after they lost 1-3 to Costa Rica in their opening match.

England recorded their second loss after falling to Italy 1-2 in their first Group D match.

The Three Lions, as the England team is also called, still have a chance in the final round of fixtures, should they defeat Costa Rica, but must now rely on other results going their way too.

“An average of 17.9 million viewers in the United Kingdom tuned in to watch the live coverage of Uruguay’s win over England.

“It amounted to two thirds of the market share for that time slot and the biggest TV audience in the UK since 2012,” FIFA said.

– NAN