20 million watch England cup agony as Twitter erupts

Mario Balotelli wasn't the only one following England's match against Uruguay on Twitter last night. Nearly seven million tweets were sent during the game which attracted a TV audience of 20 million.

The Italian striker made headlines by using the social networking site to demand a peck on the cheek from the Queen if Italy beat Costa Rica this afternoon, a result that would just keep England in the tournament.

But he was only one of millions passing comment on the game. The number of messages peaked seconds after Luis Suarez scored the late winner for Uruguay, with 214,000 comments posted that moment.

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Earlier Wayne Rooney's goal for England prompted 208,000 tweets in one minute.

Suarez also beat Rooney by the number of mentions on Twitter, with almost twice as many as the England man's 800,000

A map of how the world followed the match on Twitter shows the spike in tweets after each goal.

Among those who were watching and commenting were pop star Rihanna, who had some useful advice for the England defence:

On TV the game itself was watched by an average of 18.5 million people, according to Radio Times, and an audience of over 20 million was watching when Wayne Rooney gave England hope with his first World Cup goal in the 75th minute. Most were still watching nine minutes later when Suarez scored the winner for Uruguay.

The entire ITV coverage, which ran from 7pm to 10.30pm averaged 13.1 million viewers, more than half the total TV audience. During the match itself ITV had an audience share of 70 per cent.

By way of comparison the Britain's Got Talent final earlier this month attracted an audience of less than ten million.