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England 2 (Owen 44, Beckham 51) Finland 1 (Rihilahti 26) World Cup football home page _________________________________________________________________________ This World Cup 2002 group qualifying match took place on 24 March 2001 at Liverpool's Anfield ground as Wembley had now been closed so that England's national stadium could be rebuilt. England were bottom of their World Cup qualifying group at the start of the game as they had lost to Germany at Wembley and then drawn away in Finland. However, they now had a new manager, Sven Goran Eriksson and their confidence was much better after beating a strong Spainsh side 3-0 in a friendly the month before. The England team was: Seaman G Neville Campbell Ferdinand Chris Powell Beckham Gerrard Scholes McManaman (Heskey 72) Owen Andy Cole (Butt 90) (Fowler 82) Finland: Niemi, Ylonen, Tihinen, Hyppia, Pasanen, Kolkka, Nurmela, Wiss, Rihilahti, Litmanen, Johansson In the first half England started well with Andy Cole putting the ball just wide and then David Beckham (England captain) having a good couple of long shots. After 26 minutes however, England were a goal down - Gary Neville put the ball out for a corner - from this corner Rihilhti headed the ball hard and towards the England goal - it went in via an unlucky deflection from Gary Neville. Just before half time England equalised - Gary Neville got clear on the right wing, crossed to Andy Cole who then gave the ball to Michael Owen on the edge of the penalty area - Owen hit the ball into the corner of the net to the goalkeepers right.
Six minutes into the second half England were ahead - Steve McManaman had a good run through the centre of midfield, passed the ball via Paul Scholes to David Beckham and he blasted the ball into the net at the far post - this was a great goal but it was only Beckham's second for England after his goal in the World Cup 1998 against Columbia. Owen then headed a ball onto the bar and Cole missed a very good chance. Later on, Beckham had a free kick saved well and Robbie Fowler could have scored too. Litmanen had a couple of good chances for Finland right at the end of the match but Seaman saved well and the game finished 2-1 to England. This was an important game to win as if England had lost it they would have been almost certainly out of the World Cup 2002 - by winning the game they were now off the bottom of the group table and could improve their position even further if they could beat Albania in four days time.
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