Sven wakes from a nightmare
Euro 2004: Beckham and Owen lift England and their embattled coach out of doldrums
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Your support makes all the difference.David Beckham and Michael Owen rescued Sven Goran Eriksson from a potential nightmare with goals in the second half to earn England a 2-1 victory in their European Championship qualifying match in Bratislava last night.
Troubles appeared to be mounting for the Swedish coach as England came off the pitch at half-time trailing to a goal by Middlesbrough's Szilard Nemeth after arguably their worst 45 minutes under Eriksson's tenure. England were struggling to cope with the dreadful surface while the home side were calmly passing the ball around.
The England fans tore out seats and hurled them after Nemeth's goal. Some England supporters behind one of the goals tried to tear down metal fences separating them from the home fans, fighting broke out and riot police moved in to restore order. In mitigation of England's travelling supporters, some of whom had been involved in a shooting incident on Friday night, there was provocation in the form of racial abuse from home fans of England's two black players, Emile Heskey and Ashley Cole, something the Football Association said it would take up with the European game's governing body, Uefa.
Eriksson likened the scenes to the 1985 European Cup final, when 39 spectators died after fighting flared, cause barriers to give way. He said: "I hope no one was injured. It reminded me of scenes many years ago at Heysel. It's crazy that football should be like that."
With embarrassment lurking within the pages of Ulrika Jonsson's autobiography, a real test of Eriksson's ability to keep his cool was developing. But the dark clouds were dispersed midway through the second half when Owen dipped his head at David Beckham's looping, swerving free-kick and the ball found its way past the non-plussed goalkeeper into the net. Owen certainly got his head to Paul Scholes' cross to score England's 82nd-minute winner.
Eriksson admitted: "It was a relief, yes of course, as it was a very difficult game. We did not play as well as we wanted to, so to come back and win was very important and I am happy."
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