Soccer: Reaching finals would be massive - Beckham

David Beckham believes it will be a greater achievement if England reach the 2002 World Cup finals than when they qualified for France 1998.

England will again have defied the odds if they triumph against Greece at Old Trafford.

The road to the finals four years ago saw England overcome the massive handicap of losing 1-0 to Italy at Wembley early on in their qualifying group before fighting back to edge out their main rivals and finish top.

It has been a similar scenario this time around with defeat 12 months ago this weekend by Germany leaving England with a mountain to climb.

But they have all but scaled it after their stunning win over the Germans in Munich and will reach the summit should they secure the three points against the Greeks.

And he insisted that patience, which has been a virtue England have needed in abundance in many of their qualifying games before making the breakthrough, would again be the key.

Beckham said: "It will be a great achievement, not just for me but the whole team, to reach another World Cup finals.

"It was great to play in the last one - whatever anyone thinks - even though it ended badly (with the sending off against Argentina).

"We came back from a bad result to reach those finals but I definitely think it will be a bigger achievement to reach these finals after the start we had, what people were saying and the way we were playing.

"It will be a massive feat. When Sven (-Goran Eriksson) took over we knew it was going to be hard. We dreamt of doing it and we have made that dream into reality. That's the biggest thing for us.

"We've been under a lot of pressure to recover from the start we had and to come back and be top of the group at this point is amazing to be honest.

"But it will only continue to be that way if we make sure of our place in the finals.

"We know we have everything to lose but we are prepared for the game. We know how massive it will be on Saturday and only we can make or break things."