There were a couple of changes to Saturday's line-up, with Scholes back in the team after serving his suspension and Gary Neville was chosen as right-back, replacing Kieron Dyer.

Poland got off the to brighter start at the Legia Stadium. The home side launched a few attacks making England fight to clear away the danger in the opening spell. England's first real attempt at goal was through McManaman, after 8 minutes, but his shot went high over Poland's crossbar.

After 12 minutes of play Gary Neville was replaced by his brother, Phil, after a tackle with Iwan a minute earlier left him unable to continue.

With 20 minutes on the clock England gave the ball to the Poles leaving Stuart Pearce to head away the ball. The resulting corner caused no problems for the visitors.

England's best chance of the first half came when Beckham played the ball to Phil Neville, who beat a Poland defender and made an excellent cross to the head of Fowler. Unfortunately Fowler headed the ball wide. Then Shearer had a chance to give England the lead but he could not connect with the ball.

Four minutes of the first half were remaining when Shearer was brought down in the penalty area by Waldoch. The referee dismissed claims for a penalty and awarded a corner kick which didn't materialise. England looked to be the side capable of breaking the deadlock and looked promising with another build-up but Poland again managed to break-up England's attack.

As with the first half of play, Poland re-started the game, after the break, with good offense but luckily for England, Keown stopped Gilewicz from blasting a shot at England's net.

Ten minutes into the second half, Paul Scholes was brought down in the penalty area by Hajto and England again claimed a penalty, but the referee ignored the pleas.

As in last Saturday's game against Luxembourg, Kevin Keegan brought on Michael Owen with 25 minutes of the match remaining. Owen was clear through on goal a minute later after Batty found him with a fine ball but the linesman raised his flag for offside.

After a very late challenge in the 83rd minute, David Batty was sent off, leaving England to battle on for the last 7 minutes with 10 men. Poland threatened again but Justowiak's header was superbly saved by Nigel Martyn. With time running out England made a last attempt to leave Warsaw with the 3 points they desperately needed, with Beckham trying to play the ball from a free-kick to Tony Adams, but the Arsenal defender couldn't prevent the ball from going out of bounds.

England now have to wait a month to see if they qualify for the playoffs in November. Their qualification to the European 2000 Finals, via the playoffs, now rests on Sweden beating Poland on 9 October.

Teams

POLAND:
Matysek, Zielinski, Klos (Bak 89 mins), Waldoch, Hajto, Nowak, Iwan, Michalski, Siadaczka, Gilewicz (Justkowiak 63 mins), Trzeciak (Sierczewski 58 mins). Subs Not Used: Dudek, Rzasa, Brzecek, Majak.

ENGLAND:
Martyn, G Neville (P Neville 12 mins), Pearce, Batty, Adams, Keown, Beckham, Scholes, Shearer, Fowler (Owen 65 mins), McManaman (Dyer 79 mins). (Full Squad)
Subs Not Used: Walker, Southgate, Parlour, Sheringham.

Match Details

England Dismissal: D Batty (83 mins)
Bulgaria Cautions: Matyesek, Hajto, Siadaczka, Iwan
England Cautions: Keown

Referee: G Benko (Austria)

Attendance: 17,000