DAVID BECKHAM went from the “the worst week of my life” to declaring that England could win the World Cup in Germany next year after they qualified for the finals.

Almost four hours after England had clawed their way to a 1-0 win against Austria at Old Trafford, during which Beckham became the first player to be sent off for England twice and the first captain to be dismissed in England colours, Holland’s 2-0 win in the Czech Republic ensured that Sven-Göran Eriksson’s men have qualified for Germany 2006, regardless of the outcome of Wednesday’s final group game with Poland.

Eriksson revealed he was going to celebrate with a glass of champagne. “Every minute we followed the result from the Holland match,” the England coach said. “We are one of the four or five nations who can win it. I think we will do well in Germany.”

Beckham added: “It’s a huge result to qualify but we’ve said all along we want to win the group and that means beating Poland.

“We’ve got a lot of ability in this team and a lot of strong characters, and we believe we can go all the way and win the World Cup. There’s a lot of hard work to be done before that, but we have the quality to go a long way in Germany.”

Frank Lampard, who rose to the challenge of being England’s newly appointed penalty taker by converting a first-half spot-kick to beat the Austrians, summed up emotions in the England camp.

“It feels great. I wasn’t involved in the last World Cup so going there feels amazing,” he said. “Everyone wants to test themselves at that level and I think it will take some time to sink in. England have a habit of making it difficult for themselves but we’ve learnt a few lessons from recent results.”

Earlier in the day, Beckham’s dismissal was just the 10th suffered by an England player since internationals began in 1872. Although Ray Wilkins was sent off during a 1986 World Cup tie having taken over the captain’s armband from an injured Bryan Robson, Beckham is the first official captain to be ordered off the field of play.

To exacerbate matters, Beckham had warned his teammates about the card-happy match official before the game, Luis Medina Cantalejo being the same referee who gave Beckham his first red card in Spain’s La Liga in January last year.

The Real Madrid midfielder, who joined up with the England camp late last week after his son Romeo had been admitted to hospital, will now miss Wednesday’s game.

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