The British Big Brother housemates beat their German counterparts yesterday in a penalty shootout, thus winning the right to watch today's crucial World Cup knock-out match between England and Germany.

They competed against the German Big Brother house via a live satellite link-up. After drawing 1-1 in the main challenge, the two teams eventually squared off in a sudden death round. Both houses missed many attempts at shooting the ball into one of two holes in a wall, but Ife stepped forward to score the winning penalty for 'England'.

The British housemates were awoken by the sound of 'God Save The Queen' instead of the usual alarm, and army veteran Steve was excited to find England towels had been put in place of the plain white ones.

Steve was called to the diary room and returned with instructions. Before even opening the envelope he told the others, "This is going to be awesome." He then revealed housemates were to nominate five people to take part in a live penalty shootout to celebrate England getting through to the World Cup's final 16.

Kits were provided to the housemates, with Welsh, Australian and Irish strips on hand for Dave, John James and Caoimhe. But John James said: "I don't want to wear Australian, I want to wear England's."