On this day in 2001: Beckham came to the rescue in England's hour of need

"David Beckham scores the goal to take England all the way to the World Cup finals," those words were burned into the memories of England fans throughout the land after Beckham's 93rd-minute stunner on home turf.

The final game of their World Cup qualifying campaign, England needed at least a point to ensure that they would feature in what Ant & Dec would later label "the cup of Eastern promise in the land of the rising sun".

However, in "typical England" fashion, they made things difficult for themselves as Angelos Charisteas opened the scoring with a stunner and Teddy Sheringham's equaliser less than 10 seconds after coming on was cancelled out by Demis Nikolaidis within a minute.

The Greeks then set about defending in numbers and making things difficult for the hosts, who looked to be resigned to a difficult play-off clash against Ukraine.

It turned out to be a case of cometh the hour, cometh the man. Beckham, who had covered every blade of grass as he attempted to fire his side to the World Cup, could have been forgiven for letting Sheringham have a crack after the veteran forward was pushed when challenging for a high ball deep into stoppage time, particularly considering that he had already failed to find the net with five set-piece attempts during the game.

He did no such thing, though, taking responsibility and curling an unstoppable free-kick beyond Antonios Nikopolidis and into the top corner to spare England's blushes and ensure Sven Goran Eriksson's side booked their place at the World Cup.

Of all Beckham's 17 goals for his country, few will be more fondly remembered than that one.