As the World Cup approached, MBTA officials faced questions about whether the $80 train tickets for travel to the matches in Foxborough — four times the cost of train tickets to a New England Patriots game — might deter some fans from taking the train.

But Phillip Eng, the MBTA general manager and interim state transportation secretary, projected confidence that the stadium trains would sell out their roughly 20,000 tickets per match.

“I envision that we will be very close to it if we don’t sell out,” he said in May, while also forecasting that the train would grow more popular with each passing match in Foxborough.

That projection has not fully materialized, but the T has sold about 80% of match-day train tickets to Gillette Stadium (temporarily known as Boston Stadium) through six of the venue’s seven matches.

On Thursday, the stadium will host its final match of the World Cup, kicking off the tournament’s quarterfinals with France vs. Morocco.

Trains to two matches in Foxborough have sold out or nearly done so, and both featured Scotland’s beloved Tartan Army.

For the opening match at Gillette Stadium — Scotland vs. Haiti on June 13 — the T sold out the nearly 20,000 spots on the stadium-bound trains.

When the Scots returned to Foxborough on June 19 against Morocco, fans purchased 96% of the train tickets to the stadium.

The other four matches have been a mixed bag. For two matches, the T sold over 80% of train tickets to the stadium. For the other two, it sold under 60%.

Even then, reviews of the train ride to Gillette Stadium were positive.

The stadium trains were “well-synchronized” and “well-planned,” said Fadi Alzibary, of Jacksonville, Florida, as he rode the train to the Norway vs. Iraq match on June 16.

He is a former employee of Keolis, the company that operates the MBTA commuter rail.

“I’m very impressed, very proud,” he said.

“The MBTA and Keolis successfully delivered unprecedented service to provide a world-class experience for visitors both near and far throughout the World Cup while balancing the needs of our daily riders,” Eng said in a statement Tuesday.

The nearly 20,000 fans who took the T to the Scotland- Haiti match nearly doubled the previous record for event train service to Gillette Stadium. For the 2023 Army-Navy game, the T transported 8,504 fans from Boston to the stadium and 2,373 from Providence.

MBTA officials have said the World Cup transportation plan and renovations to Foxboro Station ahead of the tournament set a new precedent for how they could handle a future major event at the stadium. The transit system has also undergone significant repairs and grown its workforce during the three years of Eng’s tenure leading the T.

Transporting up to 20,000 fans to and from the stadium “wouldn’t have been possible three years ago,” Eng said.

He called the operation “an all-hands-on-deck effort” and said he was “proud of our skilled and dedicated workforce, Transit Police, volunteers, and countless others who demonstrated that the MBTA is a transit system that the Commonwealth can be proud of.”

The maximum wait time at South Station for fans boarding the stadium trains has been about 30 minutes. For the sold-out trains to the Scotland vs. Haiti match, fans waited in line an average of under 15 minutes after arriving at South Station, according to the T.

Across all six matches so far, every train arrived in time for fans to clear security and reach their seats before kickoff, the T said.

The average wait time for fans departing Foxborough to board a train was under 30 minutes for all but one match, the agency said. Fans waited an average of 40 minutes (and up to 70 minutes) for trains after the Haiti vs. Scotland match.

As the tournament approached, the MBTA also faced a public dispute with the city of Boston over how much of Summer Street — the road next to South Station — to close on match days.

The MBTA said it needed to close both sides of Summer Street, adjacent to the station, so fans could queue and pass through security before boarding the train to Foxborough. The city insisted that a less-disruptive closure was adequate.

Less than a week before the first match kicked off, the sides compromised, agreeing to close the entire street for half the matches and reevaluate the plan as the tournament progressed.

In the end, it appears the city has gotten on board with the T’s street closure plan. Given the thousands of people taking the train to Foxborough, the section of Summer Street next to the station has been completely closed on match days.

“Ticket sales have warranted it,” Nick Gove, the city’s interim chief of streets, said in an interview last week.

He also said officials have effectively messaged to the public about the likely headaches of driving around South Station on match days, helping limit other road traffic.

For the Scotland vs. Haiti match, fans arrived at the station earlier than their listed boarding time, causing lines to back up. Since then, Gove said, the T has urged fans to arrive at their assigned time and made clear that each ticketholder would have a seat on board the trains.

He said many people have walked or taken public transit to South Station before boarding the stadium trains. Fewer people have ordered rideshare trips to South Station than expected, helping limit the surge in traffic.

“I don’t want to speak for the T, but from a transportation perspective, we’re all happy with how this has gone,” Gove said.

“We have operations and a solution to be able to move this volume of people, at least up to 20,000, through South Station, for an event of this nature,” he added. “It’s great for future events of this size.”

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