The final was the second most watched programme of the year (after the BBC1’s coverage of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee)

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The historic England V Germany women’s Euro final reached a record audience of 17.5m (78%) last night, peaking as Chloe Kelly scored the winning goal in extra time.

This is a significant increase on the amount who watched the semi-final against Sweden on Tuesday, which was 6.7m (42.5%) with an audience peak of 9.5m (51.6%).

In comparison, the Women’s World Cup drew an average audience of 8.8m (43%) and a peak of 11.8m (50%) on BBC1 on 2 July 2019.

However, the men’s Euro 2020 final, when Engand lost to Italy, which also aired on a Sunday evening slot in July last year, reached an audience of 21.8m (82%) with a huge high of 30.8m (91%) across BBC1 and ITV.

But the audience figures show there’s a massive increase in interest for women’s football. How to sustain this interest and create a long-term large-scale fan base for the women’s game is now the key challenge.