A lip-smacking final

As soccer tournaments go, the Football Association Challenge Cup is a hard one to beat. The UK tournament – more commonly known as the FA Cup – has earned its place in history as the oldest national soccer competition in the world. Fans also love it for its regular underdog stories, with all top ten levels of the English Football League able to compete.

This year has proven no less eventful. Second-tier team Middlesbrough defeated both Manchester and Tottenham to make it to the quarters, and Nottingham Forest completed a similarly impressive run against Arsenal and Leicester. In the end, it was Premier League golden child Liverpool who defeated Chelsea to lift the trophy on Saturday.

what did UK soccer fans feast on when enjoying the spectacle?

With the dust settling after the eventful final which ended in a dramatic penalty shootout, VegasSlotsOnline News has used its investigative powers to answer the question on everybody’s lips… what did UK soccer fans feast on when enjoying the spectacle?

Using Google Search data, VSO News has assessed which takeaways were most popular with fans watching the final from the comfort of their own homes. Whether it’s sweet and sour chicken from a Chinese, a juicy burger from McDonalds, or even something a little healthier, only one can come out on top in the takeaway FA Cup final.

The results are in

As you can tell from the VSO News takeaway tracker, the tastes of UK soccer fans varied greatly from region to region.

Perhaps surprisingly, those closest to the actual game in Wembley Stadium had a hankering for some seaside grub. Londoners searched for fish and chip takeaways more than any other. In fact, the same goes for fans in the equally-southern town of Bristol, while the Welsh city of Cardiff favored pizza instead.

favored Chinese for three of the past five FA Cup finals

Travel a little further north and things change drastically. Birmingham soccer fans favored the oriental with Chinese takeaway clocking up the most searches. Residents of the Midlands city have actually favored Chinese for three of the last five FA Cup finals, only siding with Indian and fish and chips on two occasions.

Yorkshire and Lancashire soccer fans have always shared bitter rivalries, and the same goes for their takeaway tastes. Manchester fans feasted on Chinese the most on the weekend, while Leeds fans wanted something a little more Italian, racking up the most searches for pizza. In the home of the ultimate FA Cup winners Liverpool, supporters went for Indian.

Newcastle and Edinbugh fans are up last, and they also took a different route to each other. Newcastle TV viewers searched for Indian takeaway the most, changing it up from previous years when residents favored Chinese. In the Scottish city of Edinburgh, citizens chose fish and chips for the second year in a row.

Perhaps playing into a UK stereotype, FA Cup fans preferred fish and chips above all other takeaways on average in our nine regions altogether. That’s the same result as last year, when a staggering seven of the nine regions searched for fish and chips the most. Prior to this, Chinese won twice and Indian took victory once.