Becks on target when it mattered.

DAVID Beckham finally lived up to the theory that practice makes perfect as he dragged his "exhausted" body over one last hurdle to send England through to the 2002 World Cup finals at his beloved Old Trafford.

The Manchester United star must have been wondering whether all the time he devotes to rehearsing setpieces at Carrington and with his country was going to pay dividends as the qualifier with Greece entered injury time.

Up until that point Beckham had failed to convert any of eight freekicks inside the 90 minutes from the kind of central situation outside the penalty area he normally exploits.

There was one sprawling early save from Antonis Nikopolidis to his right, while a Beckham curler hit the sidenetting and momentarily fooled the fans into thinking it had crept inside a post.

But cometh the hour, cometh the man and the hundreds of hours spent honing such skills away from the public spotlight Beckham seldom escapes were justified with a vengeance in the third minute of stoppage time.

Nikopolidis simply did not move a muscle and looked like a rabbit trapped in headlights as the ball curved past him with faultless precision into the right-hand top corner of the net to earn England a priceless 22 draw.

Beckham, who almost ran himself to a standstill trying to galvanise his below-par team-mates into life, admitted: "I knew it was the last chance. It was all or nothing. I knew it had to go in.

"I'd had a lot of free-kicks during the game and it was unlike me not to hit the target with them and to make the 'keeper work.

"By that last free-kick I was feeling exhausted and also desperate because going into the play-offs was what we didn't want.

"But I was not nervous before I took it because those sort of free-kicks are what I have practised all my life.

You've got to do that.

"I still practise them all the time.

The day before the game I hit a lot of free-kicks and they all went in - so I knew one had to come off!

"I had a funny feeling before I hit it that it might find the target. Mind you, someone did say afterwards that it would have been easier for us if I had scored with the first rather than the 19th!

"Teddy Sheringham had even tried to take the last two off me, but I wasn't having it and I told him the last one was too far out for him. He just laughed and left me to it.

"I have to admit the emotion started coming out of me at the end after I had scored and we found out we were through. It was an unbelievable feeling."

CAPTION(S):

ON TOP OF THE WORLD David Beckham celebrates his late equaliser for England.