A record crowd for an international rugby league match will attend Saturday’s World Cup final between Australia and New Zealand at Old Trafford.

Organisers say ticket sales have topped 74,000, meaning the attendance will better the previous record crowd of 73,631 for the 1992 World Cup final between Britain and Australia at Wembley Stadium.

The Old Trafford capacity of 76,000 is reduced for Saturday’s game because of the presence of the big screen but the game was on Friday officially declared a sell-out.

The crowd for the last World Cup final to be held at Old Trafford was just 44,329 for the game between Australia and New Zealand in 2000.