The NFL has staged its first regular-season game in Australia, with the San Francisco 49ers beating the Los Angeles Rams 27-7 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in a landmark event for Melbourne.

More than 100,000 fans attended Friday’s historic contest, with the MCG recording a crowd of 100,021. Supporters wearing NFL jerseys travelled from across Australia and overseas for the occasion.

Victoria Premier Ben Carroll described the game as an exciting and historic moment for the state, saying the atmosphere and Melbourne weather had come together for a major event.

Carroll said the event would help reinforce Victoria’s position as a major events destination and suggested it would become one of those occasions people remember by asking where they were when it happened.

The match marked the first regular-season NFL game to be played in Australia and was part of the league’s broader international push. The NFL has said Australia has about nine million fans of the sport, including two million who became fans in the past few years.

The scale of the event was visible around Melbourne, with fan activities and NFL branding spreading beyond the stadium. The occasion also drew international attention as the league sought to build its profile in Australia and use the country as part of its wider global growth strategy.

The game followed a week of NFL activity across Melbourne. An aircraft flypast also added to the opening-day atmosphere around Melbourne as the city prepared for the NFL event.

For Melbourne, the game provided a major international sporting showcase at one of Australia’s best-known venues. The NFL has a four-year arrangement involving games at the MCG, making Friday’s event the first step in a longer-term push to establish the league in Australia.

Source: The Guardian live coverage · The Guardian · MCG