The match, in which David Beckham picked up his 101st cap at the age of 33 and Chelsea centre back John Terry experienced a partial redemption for his penalty miss in last week's Champions League final by scoring the opening goal, drew a 27.6% share of the audience between 8pm-10pm.
However, it was not enough to beat ITV1's third live semi-final of 'Britain's Got Talent', which pulled in 9.3m viewers and a 35.8% share of the audience between 8.30pm-10pm, giving the broadcaster the most watched show for the third evening in a row.
BBC Two's one-off drama, 'Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story', in which Julie Walters played the late TV campaigner Mary Whitehouse, brought a solid 2.8m viewers and an 11.6% share between 9pm-10.30pm.
The first episode of Channel 4's cookery series 'River Cottage Spring', featuring Devon-based chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, was watched by 1.9m viewers and a 7.2% share in the 9pm-10pm slot. Including Channel 4+1's audience, it had 2.1m viewers and an 8.1% share.
Later on in the evening, US import 'Desperate Housewives' attracted 2.1m viewers and an 11.3% share between 10pm-11pm, rising to 2.3m and 12.2% including figures from Channel 4+1.
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