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Nikos Dabizas spoke to the Sun ahead of Greece’s match with England at the OAKA and revealed what he had said to David Beckham about the foul that deprived our national team of victory in 2002 against the Three Lions
In a very important match, Greece welcomes her England (14/11, 21:45, ALPHA, LIVE MATCHCENTER SPORT24) at the packed OAKA and in this context Nikos Dabizas spoke to Sun for the 2001 game between the two teams.
In that match the National team took a 2-1 lead at Old Trafford thanks to goals from Charistea and Nicolaidis, but equalized at 90+3′ with a stunning free kick by David Beckham.
Dabizas still remembers that match and speaking to Meso revealed what he said to the England legend when he saw him again after the game.
“Yes, after the game – if I remember correctly – probably later in a game against Manchester United I said to him: ‘You got yourself out of jail.’ And he smiled. He laughed. He’s a perfectly normal guy.
I think he gave a great performance in the game against us in 2001. It was a landmark match for his career and it was the first strong sign we gave as a team with mr. Rehagel about what was to come, as we were very competitive in qualifying.
We were convinced that we can stand up to very high-level teams because this England team had a lot of talent. And the team that went to Portugal in 2004 had a lot of talent despite having some problems back then in English football.
Beckham was certainly a footballer who was extremely effective in set-pieces. His shots were unimaginably good. One of the best in the world in terms of the way he hit the ball and the trajectory the ball took.
It was the last stages of the match, there was a lot of pressure, we were in front, if I remember correctly we were playing with three central defenders. Then this whole story started with Mr. Rehagel to trust the system of three central defenders more.
But I think it was inevitable at that point the game got to. When a footballer of this level can pass the ball either over the wall or from the closed corner of the goalkeeper, then I think the level of difficulty is very high.
And it had the result it had in the last phases of the match. And England qualified for the World Cup with that draw,” he said characteristically.
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