England's 10th World Cup qualification

Following England's victory over Austria at Old Trafford and the Netherlands' win at the Czech Republic, England and Poland both qualified for the World Cup finals in Germany next year.

Against Poland, England gave a remarkable performance on October 12 to win 2-1 and finish on top of their group.

England's next international will be the friendly against Argentina in neutral Geneva (Switzerland) on Saturday, November 12.

England have thus qualified for their 10th World Cup finals. Since the country was not on the same wavelength with FIFA, they only started to participate in World Cup events from 1950.

Thus, England missed the chance to join other soccer nations in taking part in the first three World Cup editions - 1930, 1934 and 1938.

Their ups and downs in the qualifications for the finals have come as follows:

1950: Won all three qualification matches and made it for the finals in Brazil.

1954: England went through the same procedure and made it to Switzerland.

1958: Sweden beckoned as England won three and drew one of their qualification matches.

1962: The trip to Chile was attained the same way as it occurred four years previously.

1966: England were the hosts and winners.

1970: England qualified as World Cup holders.

1974: The first time the English failed to reach their goal after winning only one of their four internationals.

1978: For the second consecutive World Cup tournament England failed in their qualification matches even if they lost only one match from six.

1982: England booked a passage to Spain after four wins and a draw from eight qualifiers. The clincher was the 3-1 victory in Budapest against Hungary.

1986: The Whites reached Mexico undefeated after four victories and the same number of draws.

1990: Once more England finished undefeated in qualifiers to claim a place among the finalists in Italy. The clincher was the 0-0 draw in Katowice against Poland.

1994: The United States was beyond England's reach as the national team failed to qualify for the third time in history. Lost two matches out of ten.

1998: The 0-0 draw in Rome against Italy saw England qualify automatically for France.

2002: For the second time running England gained an automatic qualification without having to be involved in the play-offs.

2006: England qualified with one match to spare and went on to defeat the Poles and top their group.

Eriksson among the best

England have been managed by ten different coaches (not including the caretaker spells) since the war.

Current boss Sven-Goran Eriksson, whose contract runs to 2008, is ranked among the top five.

The managers and their facts and feats, in order of percentage points' success, read as follows:

Alfred Ramsey (February 1963 - May 1974).

World Cup: 1966 winners, 1970 quarter-finals, 1974 did not qualify. European Championship: 1964 exit first round, 1968 third place, 1972 quarter-finals.

73% - P 113, W 69, D 27, L 17, F 224, A 98

(Ramsey was appointed in October 1962, but did not take up his duties until February 1963. During the interim two games were won and another drawn).

Terry Venables (March 1994 - June 1996).

European Championship: 1996 semi-finals.

73% - P 24, W 12, D 11, L 1, F 36, A 13.

Ron Greenwood (August 1977 - July 1982).

World Cup: 1982 second phase. European Championship: 1980 exit first round.

71% - P 55, W 33, D 12, L 10, F 93, A 40.

Glenn Hoddle (September 1996 - November 1998).

World Cup: 1998 second round after group phase.

71% - P 28, W 17, D 6, L 5, F 42, A 13.

Sven-Goran Eriksson (February 2001).

World Cup: 2002 quarter-finals; European Championship: 2004 quarter-finals, exit in penalty shoot-out.

70% - P 58, W 33, D 15, L 10, F 108, A 55.

Walter Winterbottom (September 1946 - August 1962).

World Cup: 1950, 1958 first round; 1954, 1962 quarter-finals. European Championship: 1960 did not enter.

68% - P 136, W 76, D 32, L 28, F 375, A 194.

Bobby Robson (July 1982 - July 1990).

World Cup: 1986 quarter-finals, 1990 fourth place. European Championship: 1984 did not qualify, 1988 exit first round.

65% - P 95, W 47, D 30, L 18, F 154, A 60.

Graham Taylor (July 1990 - November 1993).

World Cup: 1994 failed to qualify. European Championship: 1992 exit first round.

64% - P 38, W 18, D 13, L 7, F 62, A 32.

Don Revie (July 1974 - July 1977).

World Cup: 1978 failed to qualify. European Championship 2000: 1976 did not qualify.

62% - P 29, W 14, D 8, L 7, F 49, A 25.

Kevin Keegan (March 1999 - October 2000).

European Championship: Elimination in group phase.

58% - P 18, W 7, D 7, L 4, F 26, A 15.

Note: Joe Mercer (1974), Howard Wilkinson (1999 and 2000) and Peter Taylor (2000) acted as caretaker managers.

Dismissals

David Beckham, harshly sent off against Austria earlier this month, became the first England captain to be dismissed and the only England international player to see red twice. The list of sendings-off:

Alan Mullery against Yugoslavia in Florence - June 5, 1968.

Alan Ball against Poland in Chorzow - June 6, 1973.

Trevor Cherry against Argentina in Buenos Aires - June 12, 1977.

Ray Wilkins against Morocco in Monterrey - June 6, 1986.

David Beckham against Argen-tina in Saint-Etienne - June 30, 1998.

Paul Ince against Sweden in Stockholm - September 5, 1998.

Paul Scholes against Sweden in London - June 5, 1999.

David Batty against Poland in Warsaw - September 8, 1999.

Alan Smith against Macedonia in Southampton - October 16, 2002.

David Beckham against Austria in Manchester - October 8, 2005.