11.06.2003 - Owen double steers England to victory
Two second half goals from Michael Owen helped England to a win at the Riverside stadium against Slovakia tonight, as England closed the gap on Turkey at the top of their Euro 2004 qualifying group.
As in their away game against the same opponents late last year, England found themselves a goal behind, and it took until the 62nd minute for England to level things and it was Owen, winning his 50th cap and captaining the side in a competitive match for the first time, who scored the equaliser, calmly netting from the penalty spot after he himself had been knocked over in the area.
The second was provided by Gerrard with just over a quarter of an hour remaining, with Owen rising above the Slovak defence to power a header past the helpless goalkeeper and win the game for England, who are now two points behind Turkey and have a game in hand.
Elsewhere, Vladimir Smicer scored the first of the Czech Republic's goals in a 5-0 trouncing of Moldova before being replaced after 59 minutes by Milan Baros, who was unable to find the net himself.
Jerzy Dudek had another miserable night with Poland though, almost exactly a year after playing his second and final game of the 2002 World Cup and it was an error by the Liverpool man which helped Sweden complete a comfortable 3-0 win over the Poles, leaving Poland second bottom of the group and realistically needing to win all of their remaining games to qualify for next summer's finals.
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