• BBC was forced to defend Lawrenson earlier in tournament
• Viewing figures for quarter-final peaked at 23.2m on BBC
The BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson faced a Twitter backlash after calling users of the social networking site "sad" during England's quarter-final defeat to Italy.
The former Liverpool player made the comment during the second half of Sunday night's match, but is unlikely to care about the criticism as much of it was aired on Twitter itself.
Despite the BBC's ongoing push to encourage interaction with its programmes via Twitter and the fact that several of his colleagues – including Match of the Day host Gary Lineker – are avid users, Lawrenson appeared to be off message.
After the pundit mentioned Twitter, commentator Guy Mowbray read out details of how viewers could "get in touch" – but Lawrenson sarcastically dismissed users of the service as "sad".
The BBC was forced to defend Lawrenson earlier in the tournament after he was accused of casual racism after referring to a man dressed in an all in one black lycra bodysuit as "Eric the Eel". Then a BBC spokesperson said: "Mark Lawrenson commented on a man dressed in an all in one swimsuit which was similar to those worn by Eric the Eel. This was clearly not meant to cause offence."
Last year, Lawrenson apologised and insisted he meant no offence after making a joke on Radio 5 Live that could be construed as having homophobic overtones. While the BBC will monitor audience reaction to the Twitter comments, it is unlikely to comment further.
The BBC's coverage of England's quarter-final defeat was watched by the biggest TV audience since the team went out at the same stage of Euro 2004 against Portugal. Overnight viewing figures showed the BBC1 coverage of the Euro 2012 quarter-final hit its height at 10.20pm with 23.2m watching the deciding shootout.
An average audience of 17.4 million watched the coverage, with its extra-time and penalty climax – the highest audience of the tournament so far. Read More
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