16 DAYS TO GO : England secured their place in the World Cup finals by finishing top of Group Nine of the European qualifying competition.
Over the course of their qualification, England scored 16 goals, all in their last six matches following a 1-0 defeat to Germany and a goalless draw in Finland.
Qualification looked distant when England were five points adrift of leaders Germany after just two games.
To make matters worse, they had no manager with Kevin Keegan's resignation and number one target Sven-Goran Eriksson was under contract at Lazio.
But Eriksson arrived in England in January 2001 to transform the side's World Cup hopes.
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