The Euro 2012 final between Spain and Italy set a new record on social networking site Twitter, msn.com reports.
In the final, Spain beat their European neighbours 4-0 and when the fourth goal was scored, Twitter erupted with more social media content than ever before for a sporting event.
In the moments after the 88th-minute goal was scored, Twitter users fired off over 15,358 tweets per second, smashing the previous record set in February this year when 12,233 were sent during an American Football match between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.
Furthermore, between the tournament’s opening and closing ceremonies, a total of 11,900,000 related tweets were generated, with 873,000 related to champions Spain. England were placed behind them in second, generating 849,000 tweets after coming top of what was deemed to be a tough group.
The final alone was responsible for 16.5 million tweets.
Individual players also took their share of the limelight, with tournament stars including Cristiano Ronaldo and Mario Balotelli each generating close to a quarter of a million tweets.
Speaking to football.co.uk after the results were published, Twitter’s Andrew Fitzgerald explained: “You can see how often all of the teams were mentioned throughout the tournament and loot at how mentions compare for competitors for each match.
“These different perspectives should give you a strong sense of how people reacted during the matches on Twitter. Look, for example, at the big spikes in tweets that tend to occur during goals.”