Paul Scholes's useful knack of scoring important goals on important occasions and David Beckham's way with free-kicks served England well last night.

Scholes turned the ball into the net after 64 minutes and Beckham curled one in under the bar in the 86th to bring Sven-Goran Eriksson his fifth successive victory since taking over as coach, enabling England to keep pace with Germany in their qualifying group.

With the Germans winning 20 in Albania to retain their six-point lead, England's best chance of overtaking them to qualify automatically will come when they visit Munich on September 1st.

For the moment, Eriksson will have been satisfied to maintain the strength of continuity evident in last night's performance, in which Robbie Fowler and Steven Gerrard were outstanding.

England were not looking for a landslide victory, more the sort of working majority they had enjoyed on three previous visits to Greece.

If Eriksson's retention of Emile Heskey on the left was something of a surprise - it having been assumed that Steve McManaman would replace the Liverpool man - there was a certain logic in the coach's thinking.

Greece had lost two right-sided defenders through suspension so Heskey's pace and aggression on that flank had added potential.

Certainly it looked that way at the outset as Heskey, sent clear by a lob from Robbie Fowler, burst through on goal only to be smartly intercepted by Dimitris Mavrogenidis.

With Fowler and Michael Owen linking up well with their Liverpool colleague, England's more threatening attacks continued to come from this quarter.

The Greeks concentrated on patient, possessive football, trying to draw England forward so that the likes of Theo Zagorakis and Giorgios Karagounis could find space between Eriksson's midfield and back four.

But with Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes each covering assiduously and both quick to regain the ball when possession was lost, Greece found it hard establishing links with their front pair, Nikos Machlas and Zisis Vryzas.

England, while equally keen to go forward, were wary of losing their shape and pattern. Corners came easily to them but until Fowler, meeting Gerrard's cross with a firm header, drew a sharp save from Antonis Nikopolidis after 19 minutes there was little prospect of a goal.

Towards half-time, moreover, the speed and mobility of England's strikers, supported by the midfield strength of Gerrard and Scholes, began seriously to test the Greek back three - not to mention the linesman's judgment on offside.

Fowler's touch on the ball as he dropped off Owen was often a delight and his attempt to go through the defence in tandem with Heskey might have succeeded had the latter's return pass not been overhit.

Not a bad first 45 minutes for England then, though they needed a goal and the shot from Lymperopoulos that rebounded off David Seaman's chest on the stroke of half-time was a pertinent reminder of this.

A similar thought, of course, had occurred to the Greeks, who raised the tempo of their game for the second half with Zagorakis starting to dictate their movements to greater effect.

With Lymperopolous, the Greek captain was finding previously undiscovered space in the approaches to goal. Meanwhile, England's captain had decided to get hold of the play in his own way.

More and more Beckham moved to the middle and beyond, popping up left, right and centre as he strove to regain his team's earlier initiative.

As it was England did slightly more than that four minutes past the hour. An oblique run by Phil Neville across the face of the Greek penalty area, combined with Scholes's sprint through the middle, caught the defence in two minds.

Neville laid the ball out to the incoming Heskey, whose low shot was turned into the net by Scholes, his 13th goal for England.

GREECE: Nikopolidis, Mavrogenidis (Yiannakopoulos 71), Fissas, Dabizas, Ouzounis, Goumas, Basinas, Zagorakis, Machlas (Alexandris 65), Karagounis (Liberopoulos 25), Vrizas. Subs Not Used: Lakis, Konstantinidis, Vokolos, Kateryiannakis. Booked: Vrizas, Fissas.

ENGLAND: Seaman, Phil Neville, Keown, Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Beckham, Scholes (Butt 88), Gerrard, Heskey (McManaman 75), Owen, Fowler (Smith 80). Subs Not Used: Carragher, Martyn, Southgate, Sheringham. Booked: Ashley Cole. Goals: Scholes 64, Beckham 87.

Referee: Rune Pederson (Norway).