David Beckham's iconic goal vs Greece to send England to 2002 World Cup completes 20 years

On this day two decades ago, David Beckham scored an iconic Virtuoso goal vs Greece. The Three Lions were trailing 2-1 at Stoppage time and a defeat would have meant that Sven-Goran Eriksson's side would have to face Ukraine in a playoff game in order to reach the 2002 World Cup.

However, England were awarded a free-kick in the 93rd minute and upstepped captain David Beckham curling a great ball back into the net from the 25-yard mark to send England direct to the 2002 World Cup main tournament in the most dramatic fashion.

David Beckham recalls the 'special moment'

Recalling the incident, David Beckham, while speaking to Sportsmail, said that he still gets "goosebumps" when he thinks about that moment and called it "a special moment."

"That moment was redemption for what had happened because up until then there was always that cloud around the sending off [Beckham had seen red against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup]. I felt that the real England fans and the fans that disliked me for a few years, all of a sudden we're like "okay, that's it, we can move on now," he said. 

"To represent my country, to captain my country, to score a goal that meant so much to our country and the fans, and to do it all at Old Trafford, for me, it couldn't have been any more perfect," David Beckham concluded. 

Teddy Sheringham sheds light on what happened seconds before the beautiful curler 

A few months earlier, Teddy Sheringham spoke about the masterful individual brilliance from teammate David Beckham during the game against Greece and what had happened a few seconds before that. He said, "I’d already scored to make it 1-1 in the game, so I was buzzing. I felt 10 feet tall, and I’d won the free-kick late on in the game, making the most of a shove from the defender and Becks had probably had five or six free-kicks in that game, and they’d gone all over the place; he’d hit the wall, he’d hit Row Z, so when we got the last one I actually said to him ‘Becks, I’ll have this one.’

Sheringham, however, said that Beckham asked him to let it go, and said that he will be taking the shot. He just said ‘Go away, Ted. You can’t even reach from here. He had a point. I’d scored the odd free-kick in my career but I saw Becks on a daily basis practising so I knew he was better. If you had to put money on someone putting the ball in the top corner in the last minute of a game, you’d put it on him. He told me to go away in the most polite way he could think of at the time and ended up scoring. That’s what top players are all about,” he added. 

Image: AP