Republic of Ireland viewing figures on RTÉ 2 for Germany 2006 are up by an average of 23% in comparison with viewer ratings for Euro 2004 at the same stage of the competition. Even though Ireland did not qualify this time around either, interest in the beautiful game has increased significantly since the last major International competition.

The most watched game in the group stages of Euro 2004 was Croatia v England which attracted an audience of 341,000 while England.s game against Sweden in this year.s group stages has proved to be the most popular match among Irish audiences so far with 539,000 tuning in to watch.

Although BBC and UTV figures are only available for the first ten days of the World Cup, it appears that 23% of Republic of Ireland viewers choose to watch coverage on the UK channels. Of these, BBC1 is the preferred channel claiming 58% of viewers with the other 42% tuning into UTV.

373,000 people tuned into Monday night's game and later probably wished they hadn't as this game proved to be one of the most boring of the competition so far.

With neither side willing to take any risks, audiences endured a very dull 90 minutes and subsequent extra time. Audiences were finally rewarded with a penalty shoot out to decide the game. Viewing figures peaked during the penalty shoot out with an audience of 433,000 watching Ukraine go through to meet Italy in the quarter finals.

Expect a huge audience to tune in to watch this battle as England seek revenge on the team that knocked them out of the quarter finals of Euro 2004 in a penalty shoot out. With both Deco and Costinha missing from the Portuguese side having been sent off in the game against the Netherlands, England must really fancy their chances of beating Scolaris side this time around... …