France's World Cup semi-final victory over Portugal on Wednesday drew the highest audience figures in French television history.

More than 22.2 million people tuned in to watch the game on channel TF1 as Zinedine Zidane's first-half penalty guided Raymond Domenech's side through to a final showdown against Italy on Sunday.

That figure - which rose to 25.1m in the dying minutes of the game - eclipsed the previous record of 21.4m who watched France beat Italy in the final of Euro 2000.

Audience figures in France have grown steadily as Les Blues have progressed through the tournament.

Almost 20m viewers watched the 3-1 win over Spain in the last 16 and just under 20m tuned in for the 1-0 win over defending champions Brazil.

"We knew we would beat the record," said TF1 sports manager Charles Villeneuve in L'Equipe.

"Nine out of 10 kids were watching the match as well as nine million women. This is very good for the future."

Villeneuve is now expecting the new record to be broken when France take on Italy in Berlin on Sunday.

He added: "This is going to be a great day because people watch television with their family.

"Kick-off is also at 8pm (7pm BST), which is earlier."