FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi were the names on everyone’s fingertips on Saturday night as the UEFA Champions League final took over popular social media platforms Facebook and Twitter.

Long since one of the most popular events of the year with television audiences, the UEFA Champions League final is now also proving hugely popular on social media platforms.

This season’s showpiece, in which FC Barcelona triumphed 3-1 over FC Barcelona, dominated Facebook and Twitter on Saturday night. The fixture generated over two million mentions on Facebook during the game and Man of the Match Lionel Messi was also the most popular player on the social network, earning a staggering 439,108 mentions. Wayne Rooney was second with 153,782 references.

Messi was the name on everyone’s lips and on their fingertips as well, being mentioned 70,000 times per minute in the aftermath of his goal, which put Barcelona 2-1 ahead. The champions dominated in terms of mentions on the platform almost as much as they did in the passing statistics, with Barcelona referenced 1,831,779 times to 305,830 for United.

On Twitter, meanwhile, the final drove updates on the microblogging service to almost unprecedented levels. There were 6,303 Tweets per second – the second highest spike ever – when Rooney equalised the Premier League side. There were also 6,277 Tweets per second when David Villa scored the clinching goal for Barça.

Source: UniCredit

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