In the 1998 World Cup England were a young team playing attractive football that the country got behind and 20 years on that finally seems to be the case again. As with now the team faced Colombia then too.
England's loss to Belgium on Thursday evening means that Gareth Southgate's men finish second in the group and face top seeds in Group H Colombia. Last time the two teams faced in the World Cup Southgate was in defence for Glenn Hoddle's side.
20 years ago England opened their World Cup with a win over Tunisia, much like this time round, but then lost to Romania thanks to Dan Petrescu's last winner.
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That result meant that England needed to avoid defeat to Colombia to go through whilst the South Americans needed a win to advance at the Three Lions expense.
David Beckham and Michael Owen had both had to accept places on the bench in the first two games but Hoddle turned to them to start in the important game against Carlos Valderrama and co.
Darren Anderton opened the scoring for England after 20 minutes but it was Beckham's free kick just nine minutes later that secured the win and took the headlines:
The win, plus Romania's draw with Tunisia, meant that England finished second in the group, just one point behind the Romanians.
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That result set up the game against Argentina in the second round. Of course despite his incredible free kick in the last group game it would be the knockout game where Beckham would earn notoriety, for all the wrong reasons.
The then Manchester United player was sent off for kicking out at Diego Simeone and the 1966 World Cup winners lost on penalties.
20 years later and Southgate's men take on Colombia one round later after the South Americans beat Senegal earlier on Thursday to top their group from Japan.
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They have Radamel Falcao leading the line which is a scary prospect but James Rodriguez could miss the match through injury after he limped out of the Senegal game.
Will anyone step forward to take the Beckham role?
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football News, Colombia, David Beckham, World Cup news, England, World Cup