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From Lionel Messi's classy showmanship to Bono’s penalty shootout heroics. Here are 10 times Twitter went wild during the 2022 World Cup so far.
The FIFA World Cup 2022 has no doubt offered fans around the world more than a fair share of premium drama.
Qatar’s showpiece has actually turned out to be far better than most had anticipated following the controversies surrounding this year’s venue as well as the host nation’s bid.
However, we’ve seen some incredibly mind-blowing moments so far at football’s greatest showpiece.
Who could forget Saudi Arabia’s remarkable opening group stage upset against Argentina?
Neither could we forget about Japan’s epic comeback against the 2014 champions Germany.
These moments amongst others have lit up social media globally triggering reactions and opinions from fans and lovers of the beautiful game as well.
Qatar 2022: New study reveals top 10 social media moments of the tournament so far
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According to a new research, Richarlison’s stunning acrobatic goal against Serbia is the biggest social media moment of the World Cup so far.
The study by sports betting site Nostrabet analyzed tweets from the official @FIFAWorldCup Twitter account to discover which of its football-related posts since the opening day of the tournament have had the most combined likes, re-tweets and replies.
Commenting on the study, a spokesperson for Nostrabet said: “The World Cup is reaching a climax and soon fans will start feeling nostalgic about the action at the tournament, so it’s fascinating to take a look back and see which moments made the biggest impact at the time. Richarlison’s goal is definitely one of the best this World Cup has seen, so it’s a worthy winner, while there were plenty of upsets, shocks and great performances to fill up the top ten.
#1 ‘WOW #FIFAWorldCup | #Qatar2022’
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So far at this year’s showpiece, a photo of Richarlison’s spectacular overhead volley against Serbia in the group stage is the tweet that has generated the most engagements, racking up 285,000 likes, 44,600 re-tweets and 1,896 replies. The tweet simply, “WOW #FIFAWorldCup | #Qatar2022”.
#2 ‘Today’
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The tweet with the second most total engagement from FIFA’s official account is from the opening day of the competition, Sunday 20 November, and says one single word “Today”, without any image or video attached.
The minimalist post generated an impressive 267,335 likes, 42,600 retweets and the most replies of any tweet in the list – 4,156.
#4 'LIONEL MESSI'
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The third most engaged post is the tweet from Argentina’s opening goal against Croatia in the semi-final on December 13, and simply names the scorer of the penalty.
“LIONEL MESSI” generated a total of 305,641 reactions, including 272,000 likes, 3,341 replies, and 30,300 re-tweets.
#4 ‘THE HERO’
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Morocco’s goalkeeper Bono is the subject of the fourth most popular World Cup tweet.
The post was published on Tuesday 6th December following Morocco’s penalty shootout victory over Spain in the round of 16.
It features images of Bono saving a penalty, and waving to the crowd, with the text reading “THE HERO” followed by emojis of a crown and the Moroccan flag, and has generated a total of 280,094 reactions.
#5 ‘History’
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The fifth biggest tweet is another single word post, “History”, which came after Morocco’s history-marking quarter-final win over Portugal, and produced a combined total of 272,170 replies, likes and re-tweets.
#6 ‘Japan beat Germany’
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Sixth place goes to a tweet which read “Japan beat Germany”, marking the group stage upset. It received a total of 250,004 reactions, including the highest number of retweets, with 50,900.
The top ten is rounded out by a picture of Morocco’s Sofiane Boufal dancing with his mother on the pitch following their incredible victory over Portugal which garnered 231,352 engagements.
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In eighth place is a tribute to Luka Modric hailing him as a World Cup legend.
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In ninth place is the phrase “This is football” which came after the Netherlands’ dramatic two goal comeback against Argentina in the quarter final.
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And in tenth place is another reference to Japan’s win against Germany, with images of Japanese players and fans celebrating.”
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