BECKHAM: WE EVEN AMAZED IN MUNICH
Posted on:Tuesday Sept 2, 2001

David Beckham has revealed the sense of 'amazement' felt by England's players as the demolition of Germany began to unfold on a night to remember in Munich. Beckham claimed the players struggled to comprehend the magnitude of their achievement as the goals started to fly past Oliver Kahn in the second half of the 5-1 victory.

And the captain admitted he will always savour the moment when he went to salute England's fans at the final whistle as the memory of losing to the Germans in the last game at Wembley 11 months ago was well and truly buried.

Beckham was so aware of the significance of the occasion that he even rejected the chance to be substituted in the final stages after his week-long battle to overcome a groin problem.

He said: 'We didn't get off to the best of starts but once the goals started going in we were looking around in almost total disbelief. If you watch the faces of the players, especially when the third, fourth and fifth goals went in, they have the look of `what's going on here?'

'When we sat down in the changing rooms afterwards we were amazed and we know the world will probably be as amazed as we are.

'You work hard throughout your career for nights like that and you have to enjoy them. Walking over to the fans was an amazing feeling because the heartache after the game at Wembley was so hard to come to terms with.

'I am sure the Germans were feeling a little bit worse than we did after that Wembley defeat. We don't wish that on anyone but we've enjoyed the victory.

'I'm proud to be England captain even if results aren't going well, but to come to Germany and get a result like that makes it an extra special honour and moment for me.

'I don't think you can say it's as good as it gets because, if we reach a World Cup finals, then we will have to see what can happen.

'But as long as we carry on playing like we did on Saturday we can certainly go a long, long way.

'I think we have proved that we can come to daunting places like Germany and do the business.

'I said in the build-up that records are there to be broken and we have done that. We knew the Germans were beatable.

'We said that if both teams played to their best we could beat them. We didn't start too well but the passing, running up-front and defending was excellent.'

Beckham admitted: 'For me to get through the full 90 minutes was really pleasing. I felt if I can manage the first 15 minutes okay then I could last the whole game.

'I felt the groin towards the end but not much at all. They were going to bring me off towards the end but I said `no'. I didn't want to come off.'