Athletic Bilbao set new European attendance record for women’s football

Athletic Bilbao registered a new record attendance for a women’s football match on Wednesday when 48,121 fans filled the San Mames for their Coppa della Reina clash with Atletico Madrid.

Athletic say that the crowd is the largest ever for a club-level women’s match in Europe, while the Spanish league said it set a record in Spain for both club and national team games.

It was also the club’s largest attendance outright this season as the men’s team, currently 11th in La Liga, haven’t drawn a crowd larger than 46,860.

The visiting team came out on top with a 2-0 win that sends them into the semi-finals of the cup – the women’s equivalent of the Copa del Rey – with Real Sociedad, Sevilla and Barcelona progressing from the other ties.

The outright record for the women’s game remains the 90,185 that attended the 1999 World Cup Final between the USA and China at the Rose Bowl, while more recently, 55,000 fans witnessed England’s clash with Germany at Wembley in 2015.