Gary Lineker reveals 'staggering' BBC viewing figures for England's dramatic penalty shootout win over Switzerland

The nation was gripped last night and glued to the TV to watch England's penalty shootout victory over Switzerland - and the BBC viewing figures for the Euro 2024 quarter-final have now been revealed.

The Three Lions were taken to extra time and penalties by the Swiss, who had taken the lead in the second half through Breel Embolo with around 15 minutes remaining.

But Arsenal star Bukayo Saka equalised shortly afterwards, cutting in from the right flank to curl a precise effort past Yann Sommer and in off the post to draw Gareth Southgate's side level.

The deadlock remained throughout extra time and penalties ensured in Dusseldorf.

But England emerged victorious after Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Saka, Ivan Toney and Trent Alexander-Arnold all scored to secure a 5-3 victory, with Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji having his spot kick saved by Jordan Pickford.

England will take on the Netherlands on Wednesday evening, after the Dutch came from behind to beat Turkey 2-1 in their quarter-final.

The victors of Wednesday's encounter will play either France or Spain in the Euro 2024 final in Berlin later this month.

Yesterday evening, fans gathered in their homes, pubs, bars and fan parks to watch the encounter on the BBC - and the broadcaster has now revealed just how many of us tuned in to watch Southgate's team triumph.

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According to the broadcaster, more than three quarters of England's TV viewers were drawn in at some point, with a peak audience on BBC One of 16.8m, which was during the penalty shootout victory.

There were also 8.9m streams on iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and app, with an average match audience of 13.6m.

There were also 10.5m visitors to the BBC Sport website over the course of the day, and 5.3m who following the game online via the live blog, with the page being viewed 16.6m times.

Host Gary Lineker - who presented last night's coverage in the studio alongside fellow former England stars Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Micah Richards - also took to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter to give the figures and his reaction to the audience statistics.

Lineker wrote: "Staggering viewing figures for last night’s England game: a peak audience (penalties obvs) of almost 17 million on @BBCOne and 8.9m online (@BBCiPlayer & BBC website). A combined total of nearly 26m. And @England won. What a time to be alive."

Well said, Gary.